JOÃO DO RIO, O CRONISTA-REPÓRTER: ‘JORNALISMO LITERÃRIO’, ‘INVESTIGATIVO’ OU SIMPLESMENTE ‘CRÔNICAS’?

Abstract

The present study looks into texts written by Joãodo Rio (1881 – 1921) from a hybridity perspective andaddresses the principal question to search differentapproaches to understanding the interface between centerperipheryin the Carioca Belle Époque in the analysis of hiswritings. Zones of cultural contacts, like Rio de Janeiro, thecapital, reveal the voices of the urban Brazil in thehistorical moment of its re-Europeanization, concerning theplace of culture in the postcolonial context and the eliteinvolved in the fantasy of Civilization. His ‘crônicas’,published weekly in Carioca´s newspapers in the late XIXcentury, early XX, obtain permanent literary and historysignificance, as the emerging of their past in the presenttransforms the past and the present. This helps tounderstand the permeability between the genre crônicas andhistory; both allow reinterpretation, includingreconstruction, a fill-in-the-blank game.Index terms - Brazilian literature; “crônicasâ€, literaryjournalism;postcolonial studies.