Water, Waste, and a “Greater Communion”: Rubem Fonseca’s “The Art of Walking in the Streets of Rio de Janeiro”

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Journal / Book Title

MFS Modern Fiction Studies

Abstract

In “The Art of Walking in the Streets of Rio de Janeiro” by the Brazilian writer Rubem Fonseca, the protagonist, Augusto, quits the water and sewage department in order to write a book. Augusto’s peripatetic literary project gives him a kind of imaginative power with which he hopes to achieve "a greater communion" with the city. This essay explores the possibility that, rather than literary production, public works—specifically, the management of water and sewage—might allow for the greater communion that Augusto claims to desire.

DOI

10.1353/mfs.2015.0055

Journal ISSN / Book ISBN

1080-658X, 0026-7724 (print)

Published Citation

Lorenz, Johnny. "Water, Waste, and a “Greater Communion”: Rubem Fonseca’s “The Art of Walking in the Streets of Rio de Janeiro”." MFS Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 61 no. 4, 2015, pp. 652-668. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/mfs.2015.0055

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