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118 Chapter 7 Literary Journalism’s Magnetic Pull Britain’s “New” Journalism and the Portuguese at the Fin-de-Siècle IsaBel SoaRes In RefeRRing to, studying, or reading about literary journalism, the tendency is to consider it an Anglophone phenomenon if for no other reason than the fact that a proto-literary journalism emerged in the nineteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic: the “new” journalism ascribed to W. T. Stead, Henry Mayhew, and Andrew Mearns in Britain, and to Jack London and Jacob Riis in the United States.1 Moreover, names such as Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, and Truman Capote have become so synonymous with the form’s evolution in the twentieth century that the bond between the English language and literary journalism seems impenetrable. Literary journalism, however, is a widespread journalistic form whose pioneering practitioners can also be found outside the linguistic boundaries of the English language.2 In fact, Portuguese, today’s sixth-ranked world language in terms of speaking community, also proved a fertile ground for early experiments in literary journalism. Some of the most prominent Portuguese journalists of the late nineteenth century aimed at breaking away from a more conventional journalism and became activists for a freer, more personal way of reporting. Very difficult to catalog and define, even by themselves, these journalists were recipients of transnational influences imported from France and, most notably, Britain. Also writing at precisely the same time that the Pall Mall Gazette was popularizing its “new” journalism and shocking audiences along the way, they became the form’s pioneer practitioners in Portugal. As such, they should be counted among the generation of “new” journalists in Britain for having helped found the genre we identify today as literary journalism. In this light it comes as no surprise that fin-de-siècle Portuguese journalism has drawn much attention from the academic community. The consensus among academics is that the Portuguese press, particularly during the closing Britain’s “New” Journalism and the Portuguese at the Fin-de-Siècle 119 decades of the nineteenth century, went through tremendous changes that ranged from the astounding increase in the number of periodicals in circulation to the varied topics being covered by journalists: political debates, sports events, international affairs, and so on. Notwithstanding the increasing number of studies devoted to the analysis of the Portuguese press in the nineteenth century, be it by single authors or newspapers, or regarding specific periods or topics, little has been written about the founding of a Portuguese literary journalism at the fin-de-siècle.3 Yet of special importance to this climate of change in the Portuguese press were the literary experiments of four journalists—Eça de Queirós, Ramalho Ortigão, Oliveira Martins, and Batalha Reis—whose articles were so popular, provocative, and new at the time that they still resonate among Portuguese readers of journalism and literature today, just as they did throughout the twentieth century. The Portuguese Press at the Fin-de-Siècle: Transnational Influences and Change Regarded as a small rectangular piece of land in the westernmost part of Europe, trapped between the immensity of the ocean and the huge Spanish landmass, Portugal has always endured a somewhat marginal status within continental Europe. Not only is it traditionally perceived abroad as a nation on the remote fringes of the Atlantic coast, but also it is acrimoniously described by Portuguese nationals as lagging behind all other major European powers. And never was the perception of an economically frail, culturally stagnant, and politically ineffective country more acute than in the last decades of the nineteenth century, when a self-conscious and active intelligentsia took both the literary realms and the press by storm, bitterly denouncing the failings of the nation, directly accusing the monarchy and Parliament of responsibility for what they considered to be the imminent demise of the country. Paradoxically , the truth is that, with the exception of the centuries of the great maritime discoveries and conquests, when Portugal ruled the first overseas empire of modern times, never had the nation thrived as much as at the fin-de-siècle. There were massive investments in the modernization of industry and in the construction of the much-needed infrastructure—railway networks, roads, and viaducts—that would enhance the economic development of the country . Illiteracy levels started to decrease as education was given priority on the political agenda. Financially, the foreign debt, a chronic concern of all governments , was finally brought under...

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