The public and the private in O cortiço by Aluísio Azevedo

Abstract

This paper takes as a historical witness the novel O cortiço by Aluísio Azevedo (1857-1913), investigating the specific relation established between history and literature in the context of the republican regimen introduction in Brazil. Some conceptual questions were taken into consideration in the analysis, such as the idea and practice of citizenship, the articulation of the public and private spheres and the relations between the social condition and the political culture existing in these historical conditions.