O ensaísmo do último Eça, o ensaio como forma no jornalismo eciano

Abstract

The final novels of Eça de Queirós show a marked change of tone and style in relation to previous production. A possible strategy to understand this change — running from the belief that the novelist has become a conservative, as a large portion of the traditional critique of the author wants to believe — must go through a detailed analysis of journalism produced at the same time. John Gledson proposed a similar method to interpret the Machado de Assis fiction. Thus, the present paper intends to briefly, and still in progress, to analyze some articles or chronicles of the Portuguese writer that focused bourgeois politics, anarchism and the imperialism of that time. It intends to identify them, in addition to the combative criticism that always have defined Eça, typical characteristics of the essay form as advocated by Lukács. If this is possible, the essay form could be considered also as a possibility to understand the late Eça fiction.