Konversation und Roman

Starting from a structural and historical analysis of conversation in the 19th century this study attempts to define E.Q's literary evolution from the beginnings in 1865 until the posthumously published novel «A Cidade e as Serras» (1901) within an European context. The evolution is structured in three stages, each one determined by a different relation between conversation culture and narrative discourse: (1) conversation in the novel, (2) the conversational novel, (3) the negation of conversational novel. The first one is exemplified by «O Primo Bazilio», the second one by «Os Maias» and the last one by the already mentioned «A Cidade e as Serras».