El don rechazado: teatro de tesis, esclavitud y economía moral en Mãe, de José de Alencar

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of Mãe (1860), one of the “anti-slavery” plays by José de Alencar, in relation to the author’s parliamentary discourses in favor of the gradual emancipation of slaves and to its specific social and literary contexts. The latter include the debate surrounding the reforming role of art in 19th-century Brazil, a debate in which Mãe is seen in a different analytical light. Departing from previous allegorical readings, this study argues that Mãe, due to its realist dialogue and scenes and use of “problem play” conventions, exhibits the contradictions of the Brazilian elite’s dominant ideology, and, more importantly, makes evident the intertwined network of commercial and moral transactions upon which the social bonds of favor and honor are built in early Rio society.