Wonderful City: Rio de Janeiro represented by Literature

Abstract

The modern marks the turn of the 19th century to the 20th century in Brazil, building and appropriating cities as privileged spaces for the staging of power. In the period, the modern and urban imaginaries took place in the capital of the Republic, inspiring and inflating the culture. Specifically,through literature, the cities were themed to exhaustion, illustrating the new period. In the texts, citiesare no longer the scenery of what if being narrated and are themselves the narrations, gaining features, affections and character. And in the phenomenon of granting legibility and distinction to the cities, Rio de Janeiro starts being represented as a “The Wonderful City”. We aim, on this work, to highlight the association between Rio de Janeiro and the expression“Wonderful City”, seeking the origin of the term and reflecting on written forms of representing Rio de Janeiro.