Écriture artiste: a study on the style of João do Rio and the art nouveau aesthetic

Abstract

This article analyzes the João do Rio's fictional production, observing his adherence to art nouveau aesthetics, which makes him one of the main authors of this trend in Brazil. Starting from a broad view of the presence of art nouveau aesthetics in Brazilian artistic manifestations – especially in national graphic production –, in the passage from the 19th to the 20th century, this article highlights aspects of a stylistic nature that, being typical of an art noveau “style”, finds support in João do Rio's writing, revealing not only how the artistic expression of art nouveau manifests internal tensions and contradictions, but also how it interacts with the Brazilian sociocultural reality during the duration of our literary Belle Époque. In this way, João do Rio is inserted in a broader literary system in force during our Belle Époque, which assumed unavoidable dimensions and national aspects.