(Mis)placed ideas: Senhora, by José de Alencar

Abstract

This article establishes a debate with Roberto Schwarz's concept of “misplaced ideas”, stemming from the analysis of the novel Senhora, by José de Alencar. Some implications and theoretical-critical consequences of the dialectical method applied to the analysis of literature are discussed, in order to clarify the reading that José de Alencar's novel would not have been able to explore, in a formal context, the structuring potentialities of the represented social content. Through a dialogue with the rigidity of the macrosociological approach, and choosing the same comparative method with the solutions found by Machado de Assis in Helena (1876), Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881) and Dom Casmurro (1899), this article proposes that, in Senhora, the ideas are not “misplaced,” but occupying their place in a socioeconomic structure in transition.