Between the motto and the gloss: the “anonymous” of the “Marmota na Corte”

Abstract

This article aims to examine the glosses in “Marmota na Corte”, a newspaper that circulated in the city of Rio de Janeiro, between the years of 1849 and 1852. These poems were written by the Gazeta’s subscribers themselves, who
were encouraged by the editor to send their glosses, based on a “motto” - that is, the proposed subject. We’ll call these subscribers “anonymous” since, in addition to not having the notoriety of Álvares de Azevedo, Casimiro de Abreu or Gonçalves Dias – who we’re more used to studying when talking about this period – they’re also people
whose identities are difficult for us to discover as, in most cases, pseudonyms or abbreviations were used in their authorship. Here we do not intend to systematically
analyze the textual structure of the glosses, but to insert them in their historical context and through them understand the customs and practices characteristic of
that period.