The Rhetoric of Nostalgia in a Short-Story by Rubens Fonseca

Abstract

Literary criticism points out that the fiction by Rubem Fonseca emphasizes the urban space and represents through an aggressive and outspoken language the social transformations that have taken place in the formation of the modern city of Rio de Janeiro. In the short story, “A arte de andar nas ruas do Rio de Janeiro”, from the book Romance Negro e outras histórias, we follow the adventures of the character Augusto in his flanêrie in the center of town. We observe the contradictions that permeate the entire narrative arising from a nostalgic look split between the old and the modern city of Rio de Janeiro. Identifying himself with the figure of the mouse, the character, a kind of contemporary flâneur, gets involved with marginalized figures that he finds in his wanderings. Through the character’s resigned look, the story does not let aside the representation of the rawness of life in the metropolis, where the Islanding of the subject and social marginalization generated by modernization become an invitation for reflection.