Francesas nos trópicos: a prostituta como tópica literária

Abstract

In Brazil, the literary fabulation around the prostitute recurs with particular frequency to French references. From the tragic courtesan, that acclimates the Du- mas’s heroine to the 1900’s tropical landscape, to the primacy of the “Frenchwoman,” who inaugurates the modern prostitute profile in the country’s writing, those referenc- es pass by meaningful displacements.