Leitura e sociedade : um estudo de O primo Basílio, de Eça de Queirós

Abstract

This dissertation relates the phenomenon of reading to an indicator of facts and social behavior, considering for that the realist novel O primo Basílio, by Eça de Queirós, where scenes of reading are directly associated to the issues raised and these in turn also lead to the prior readings of the author. In order to delimit a theoretical basis, the elements that make up the focus of discussion were emphasized realism, reader, literature and society through approaches of Barthes, Jauss, Derrida and Costa Lima, besides the specific critical fortune about Eça's production, in which Cunha, Franchetti and Dantas are highlighted. In queirosian novel, from the analysis of readers-characters, it is noticed that the reading processes refer to moral values that segregate men and women revealing typical conduct rules of the 19th century, what benefits the role of social withdrawal, consistent with the realistic proposal of promoting changes in behavior and mentality of bourgeois society. There is also, in Eça's narrative, the significant potentiality of literary text, which offers the readers the opportunity to build sense and renew their perceptions.