Dialogues between fashion and literature: an analysis about characterization in Luciola by Jose de Alencar

This study promotes a dialogue between fashion and literature in the novel Luciola (1862) by Jose de Alencar. The writer's work presented a detailed panorama of 19th-century social context and, especially in this work, he portrayed the everyday life of Royal Court in Brazilian Second Reign, offering an important research source for studies of that period that can be expanded to investigate fashion. Taking into account the construction of characters in the literary text, it was possible to analyze the fundamental role played by fashion in the novel to define the characterization of the protagonist, stressing her double personality, from a chaste young lady to a sly courtesan. For that we offer a brief account of European influences on Brazilian fashion during the Second Reign, placing the social environment of the time and relating it to the context of the literary narrative. A side from assuring verisimilitude to the plot, fashion is also used by the writer as a literary device for the physical and psychological construction of the character. By relating descriptions of clothes in the novel to fashion references of the period, we imply the importance of symbolic meaning that clothing also expressed to social construction.