Memórias de um sargento de milícias, de Manuel Antônio de Almeida : do encalhe à reedição

Abstract

The question that pervades this work is: why would a work so poorly received at the time of its publication may become a successful model some decades later? . This study − which focuses on the analysis, reading and critical reception of a work − is based on the theory of the aesthetics of reception. Hans Robert Jauss theoretical work analyzes the reception of the book Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias through the history of literature, the horizon of expectations and aesthetic distance. The studies of Wolfgang Iser focuses on the interaction between the text and the reader, what provides the foundations for the analysis of indeterminations and gaps that allowed the transformation of the narrative into a aesthetic object. As it was said earlier, the objective that guides this study is to analyze the transformation of the novel, from stranded to one of the most successful Brazilian books. To achieve this objective, this work is divided into five chapters which focuses on the production, reading and reception of the work. Thus, the aim is to demonstrate the reasons why the novel that took shy responsiveness throughout the 19th century became so prestigious in the 20th century.