Alfredo Gallis (1859-1910), minor naturalist

Abstract

This work presents the trajectory of the Portuguese naturalist writer Joaquim Alfredo Gallis (1859-1910). A famous man of letters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Gallis is part of a generation of professional writers who moved between literature and the press. He published dozens of volumes of short stories, signing with his own name or pseudonyms, had an active role in the main periodicals of the time, writing prose and verse. He served in public administration positions and had ties to the royalty. But neither the importance of his role as a writer nor his social position guaranteed Alfredo Gallis a place in the history of literature. While still alive, he “smeared” his image by writing pornography, especially the one he signed with the pseudonym “Rabelais”. The story of Alfredo Gallis, here rewritten based on recent research, reveals a polygraph capable of working in various genres and textual styles. We call the writer a “minor naturalist” in the sense that he was demoted and forgotten by contemporaries and history. Influenced by naturalism and the libertine novel, Gallis wrote books to be read by a wide audience, which recognized in him one of the most important characters in the literary scene of the Luso-Brazilian Belle Époque.