The Inevitable Fact of the Father and the Moments of Doubt in the Brazilian Coming of Age Novel

O Ateneu by Raul Pompéia, O mulato and Casa de pensão by Aluísio Azevedo, Bom-Crioulo by Adolfo Caminha and O urso: romance de costumes paulistas by Antônio de Oliveira are examples of coming-of-age Brazilian novels. Bisexuals, homosexuals, mulatos, malandros in the early stage of their careers, fragile and neurotic adolescents – these are the outsider inhabitants of the 19th Century coming of age novel. The comparison of these five works allows us to see common elements in the trajectories of the main characters, youngsters characterized by a singular personality or by a mysterious and dramatic past and caught in the act of transitioning from a rural environment to an urban one (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, São Luís do Maranhão). This passage from a safe but small and limiting milieu to a diverse multifaceted city informs the adolescent's freedom of choice. The collapse of illusions (echoing the Lost Illusion of Balzac) is achieved through a gradual familiarization with intrigues and prejudices and through the revelation of hidden truths from the past. The authors of these novels, published episodically in local newspapers of Rio and São Paulo, were asking their contemporary readers to see Brazilian society from the point of view of a marginalized and troubled outsider. This study is divided into three chapters: the first reviews the critical debate on the Bildungsroman genre in European, North American and Brazilian criticism. The second analyses through a structuralist perspective the elements of continuity and difference between the European Bildungsromane and the Brazilian narratives of coming-of-age. In particular, I focus on the complex relationship between the main protagonist and the father figure. The third chapter proposes to interpret the concept of "formation" as ethical reflection in the Brazilian coming-of-age novels.