The Railways as a Character: Representations of Conviviality in Brazilian Literature

Abstract

Stemming from the early railway system in Brazil, this article builds on conviviality in Latin America. Scholarship traditionally looks at railroads to analyse economy, architecture, and labour. However, the extent to which railroads changed everyday interactions within the smallest contexts remains overlooked. To fill in this gap, it draws from novels, plays, and short stories written between the late-nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth century. This timeframe corresponds to the “railway boom” in Brazil and encompasses renowned authors such as Machado de Assis but also glossed over authors, as Júlia Lopes de Almeida. Literary sources such as these allow the analysis of the impact that trains had on the everyday that would, otherwise, remain unknown. This communication, thus, is an effort of bringing the railways and its surrounding characters, particularly the outcasts, to the forefront of Brazilian [hi]stories. The connection between railways and progress in Brazil is critical in this presentation, alongside women’s pivotal role in the convivial environments that the railway engendered. In doing so, it aims to demonstrate that the colonial discourse of civilization versus barbarism crystallised, adapted, and changed with the implementation of the railway system in such as unequal society as Brazil.

Keywords

• railways
• Brazil
• literature
• history
• conviviality
• women