THE FICTIONAL DIMENSION OF THE HISTORICAL FIGURES IN EÇA DE QUEIRÓS’S PRESS TEXTS: A STUDY OF CARTAS DE LONDRES

Abstract

This article analyzes the techniques of figurative representation used by Eça de Queirós in the chronicles he published in the newspaper A Atualidade in the late 1870s. Given the relevance that characters assume in the author’s novels, and viewing his parafictional writing as a field test for his fictional strategies, the article shows how the different historical figures that appear in these chronicles are fictionally shaped. It argues that these characters are a special case of what can be called dual figuration: that which is initially made by the discourse of the press, and the one that is added by Eça de Queirós’s rereading. As a matter of fact, all of them, whether well-known historical or popular culture figures, are the result of a selection which comes under the chronicler’s humoristic scrutiny. One of the purposes of this correspondence seems to be to deconstruct the seriousness and importance of England, a part of the civilized European imaginary, through satire and ridicule, continuing to develop the kind of register that is so typical of Eça, stimulated by the sharpness of his abilities as observer and critic.