ABSTRACT
The peculiar features of Brazilian society can be seen in the development of the country's literature and in particular in three novels that are emblematic of three main stages in the economic and social development of Brazil. The first and the last come from Rio de Janeiro, capital city of Brazil until 1960, whereas the second originates in Sao Paulo, the economic centre of Brazil from the turn of the XXth century onwards. The main city however was still Rio, where there was no work to be seen, certainly not any performed by modern wage labour. This chapter explains a parody of the particularities of ideology in Brazil as discussed earlier, by pointing out the inferiority of everything Brazilian. Laying the foundations of the movimento modernista, they declared themselves against academicism and in favour of the valorisation of Brazilian culture and its expression in 'modern' forms.
