Cornelia Herculana (Um perfil político) por Luís Guimarães Júnior: a outra face das Histórias para Gente Alegre (1870)

Abstract

Luís Guimarães Júnior was an important contributor to the national literary scene in the 19th century.  The  author had great  versatility  in  his  produced  and  published  works, mainly  inBrazilian  newspapers,  such  as  the Diário  do Rio de Janeiro between 1869 and 1872. His literary production was recognized nationally and internationally, especially for his work in the field of poetry,  however,  it is worth  highlighting  that  most  of  his  literary  creation is focused on fictional  prose linked to entertainment, as we found  from  checking  historical archives at the Hemeroteca Digital Brasileira. There are novels, soap operas, short stories, chronicles, critical texts, and plays that mainly list humorous and satirical themes, and stand out for the peculiar way of narrating the facts, as well as for the construction of caricatured characters and how the writer draws the characters. Its cunning and audacious narrators. Thus, in this research, we seek to provide a study of the fictional prose D. Cornelia Herculana (Um perfil político) (1870) created by the author, to rescue an important literary production that satirizes and plays with the social reality of women in the context in question. Therefore, the  aforementioned  work  brings  to  light issues  mainly  focused  on  politics,  all  through the construction of a caricatured and funny character who subverts the social and also literary values  of the time. Thus, we highlight that this study is of a bibliographic and archivist nature and  is  based  on  research  in  primary sources  and  the  analysis  of  data  collected  at the Biblioteca  Fran  Paxeco  do  Grêmio  Literário  e Recreativo Português,  the  third  largest Portuguese library in Brazil in terms of number of rare works, located in Belém/PA.