A DRAMATURGIA DO VISCONDE DE TAUNAY: AUSÊNCIA HISTÓRICA E INOVAÇÃO ESTÉTICA ROMÂNTICO-REALISTA

Abstract

This thesis, entitled The Dramaturgy of the Viscount of Taunay: historical absence and romantic-realistic aesthetic innovation, aims to reflect on the critical exclusion of the dramaturgy of the Viscount of Taunay in the works of Brazilian literary historiography and to propose a metacritic and comparative reading about them. The author, consecrated by the novel Innocence (1872) and by the war report A Withdrawal from the Lagoon (1871), also wrote four dramatic works, little or nothing, known by the Brazilian public, being two romantic comedies, From hand to mouth the soup is lost (1874), By a close colonel! (1880), and two realistic dramas, Amélia Smith (1886) and A Son’s Conquer (1896). Initially, we expose the possible motivators for the critical exclusion or the unknown mentioned dramaturgy to have occurred, considering as basis the reading of the main historiographic reference works of Brazilian literature. Then, we present the analytical reading of Taunay's dramatic works, comparing the comedies with the plots of Martins Pena's plays and the dramas with José de Alencar's plays. In this stage, we also used historical reports on romantic and realistic dramaturgy as methodological support, the only two criticisms of Taunay's dramaturgy, produced by Sábato Magaldi (2003) and Maria Lídia Lichtscheidl Maretti (2206), Greimás' actamental model, in the adapted scheme To read the theater (2013), by Anne Ubersfeld, and the Etymological Dictionary of names and surnames (1981), by Rosário Farâni Mansur Guérios. From the readings of the plot and the metacritics, we came to the conclusion that the romantic comedies and realistic dramas from Viscount present fusions and aesthetic innovations, such as the critical instance, naturalism, symbolism and even pre-modern aspects, filling in some gaps that there are in our 19th century dramaturgy, pointed out by Décio de Almeida Prado (2003). Finally, we intend to justify the need for inclusion of this theater beyond the mere classification by period, because we understand that there are aesthetic innovations capable of justifying a “place” for the dramaturgy of Viscount of Taunay in the history of Brazilian literature.