A miséria, a religião e a moral: a recepção crítica de Os Miseráveis, de Victor Hugo, nos periódicos brasileiros (1862-1863)

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the critical reception of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables in Brazilian periodicals at the immediate moment of its publication, between the years 1862 and 1863. The central objective of this work is to analyze how different newspapers interpreted the novel, transforming it into an ideological battlefield that portrayed the social, political, and religious tensions of Imperial Brazil. The research is theoretically grounded in Aesthetic of Reception and focuses on the critiques published in the newspapers A Cruz: Jornal Religioso, Litterário, Histórico e Filosófico (RJ), Diário de Pernambuco (PE), and Correio Mercantil e Instructivo Político Universal (RJ). The results reveal distinct readings: the Catholic and conservative periodical A Cruz (RJ) sought to demonstrate the moral dangers of Les Misérables, mainly denouncing social fatalism and misery, while the liberal newspapers Diário de Pernambuco (PE) and Correio Mercantil (RJ) offered praise for the author's poetic genius and revolutionary ideals, although the latter wrote a negative point about the novel's “un-Christian” ending. It was concluded that the criticism of the period sought to perform the work of a cultural mediator that filtered, translated, and shaped the horizon of expectations of its readers, in a clear clash between conservatism and liberalism.