Eça de Queirós and Rhetoric

Abstract

Rhetoric, as a concept concerning form, style, and creative strategies, was very present in the critical and theoretical texts of Naturalism: rejecting, on the one hand, the existence of a naturalistic rhetoric, because it could represent repetitive imitation; on the other hand, derogatorily associating it with Romanticism and its tired commonplaces. Fictional texts were not immune to this issue and often ridiculed what they then considered as part of the old “romantic rhetoric.” The purpose of this article is to refl ect on the notion of rhetoric in the creative context of Naturalism, paying particular attention to the opening protocols of the narrative text.