Title
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)
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Lorenz, Johnny, "Water, Waste, and a “Greater Communion”: Rubem Fonseca’s “The Art of Walking in the Streets of Rio de Janeiro”" (2015). Department of English Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 54.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/english-facpubs/54
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