Such a scenario evokes a multi-subjective universe where cultural relativism starts to gain space in an attempt to represent different worlds. Against this background, the writer João Paulo Alberto Coelho Barreto (1881-1921), a journalist who, despite using a number of different pen names, became known under the pseudonym of João do Rio, developed a style which foreshadowed a trend found in ethnographic writing: the dialogist approach. Amongst sensorial descriptions, the author deploysJoão do Rio, developed a style which foreshadowed a trend found in ethnographic writing: the dialogist approach direct discourse thereby legitimating the narrator’s personal experience of ‘being there’.
João do Rio wrote short stories for newspapers based on his wanderings through the underworld of Rio de Janeiro. His critics accused him of importing his model from Oscar Wilde, whose translations were done by the writer himself. A alma encantadora das ruas (The enchanting soul of the streets, available in a bilingual edition by Cidade Viva), published in 1908, is a collection of short stories that had originally appeared in the newspaper Gazeta de Notícias and in the magazine Kosmos. The local context was marked by an increasingly problematic coexistence of urban development and poverty.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of João do Rio’s work is his choice of subject matter, for whilst the early twentieth century is often associated with the exploration of the exotic, as with the emerging interest for African art, the growth of museum collections and development of Anthropology, this author chose to explore the familiar, albeit marginal, world. His jExploring the vernacular landscapes in search of the underworldourney will take place within the boundaries of his own city by exploring the vernacular landscapes in search of the underworld. João do Rio is, nevertheless, in tune with his time in that he explores the truly modernist value of authenticity, in opposition to a supposed bourgeois hypocrisy. It is as if the reality as raw material can somehow bring back the magic that was lost through progress.
If in the classic model of the traveller there is a yearning to fulfill a perceived emptiness, here the latent emotion is that of curiosity, the discovery in itself, the trajectory rather than a safe harbour. The journey taken by the author is one across space, in relation to time, where velocity stands as a vector in the equation, and the flaneur, its sub product. One can also sense a certain animist tendency of granting souls to streets. Artefacts are such a big part of modern life thatJoão do Rio relies on oral sources to document events that may disappear man endows things with inner life, through an animistic form of identification. In the case of The enchanting soul of the streets, the landscape displays affections enhanced by the writer’s evocative description of the sound, the lighting and odours while wandering through the alleyways. The persona of João do Rio, which is at times that of the narrator, at others that of the investigator, is constructed through his encounter with ‘the other’ and through the element of transgression; at times he is spellbound by what he witnesses, at other times, he is nauseated by it, although always as an observer.
João do Rio relies on oral sources to document events that may disappear; this perceived urgency to preserve memory against the speed of modern development brings to the fore the downside of progressive transformation. By privileging the memories and manifestations of the underworld, Paulo Barreto undermines the official meta-narratives and proceeds through a creative collage with words and experiences, bringing the Brazilian maxixe together with mythological Dionysus, as if trying to avoid being disenchanted by modernity:
“O bailado clássico das bailarinas do Scala e da Ópera tem uma série de passos do culto bramânico, o minueto é uma degenerescência da reverência sacerdotal, e o cakewalk e o maxixe, danças delirantes, têm seu nascedouro nas correrias de Dionísios e no pavor dos orixalás da África.” (Do Rio, 1987 [1908]:92)
