Elective affinities: sociology and literature in “o quinze”

Abstract

In this article we set out to combine two approaches to reading Rachel de Queiroz's novel O Quinze. We use themes that drive our research agendas, namely migration and the environment, as a kind of “filter” through which we respond to the reading of the novel. Central to the book structure, in the scourge of drought and starvation, the nordestino is the migrant who is forced to leave the place where he lives. The outcome is an exercise to put in perspective literature and sociology in order to highlight the common ground on which both prescribe everyday life.