New journeys of John from Rio: technology and literary perception in the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

In this article, we are going to study the relation of space, one of the fundamental elements of "João do Rio" fictional narrative, with "Rio de Janeiro" techinical landscape of the first two decades of the twenties century. We bellieve that modern artifacts such as the phonograph, the automobile, the train, the cinematograph, and, why not, the press constituted, at the dawn of the twenties century, the technical paraphernalia that suited the ideological service of that moment, conditioning the ways of perception and, especially, of cultural domination so, we will take the symbolism of the street and its possible consequences in "João do Rio" liter ature as cultural manifestations immediately linked to this period of vertiginous transformations in the technological area.