Nationality Brazilian Known for Crônicas | Occupation Writer Books Zeze's Tears | |
 | ||
Full Name Emília Moncorvo Bandeira de Melo Died 1910, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Other names Júlia de Castro, Leonel Sampaio | ||
Emília Moncorvo Bandeira de Melo (1852–1910) was a Brazilian writer who commonly wrote under the pseudonym Carmen Dolores. Other pseudonyms she used included Júlia de Castro and Leonel Sampaio.
She was born either in São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro (historians have disputed which one), and lived during her writing career in Rio, where she wrote regularly for the newspapers O País and Correio da Manhã. Her weekly column in O País featured crônicas (literally "chronicles"), brief nonfiction pieces about Brazilian life, which were likely her most famous writings. The crônicas demonstrated Dolores's activism for women's rights, arguing for fair wage legislation, educational reform, and the repealing of anti-divorce laws in Brazil.
In 1910, a collection of the crônicas was published in book form as Ao Esvoaçar da Idéia ("On the Fluttering of an Idea"). Dolores's other published books include the novel A Luta ("The Struggle", published posthumously in 1911) and several collections of short stories. She also wrote literary criticism and plays.
Dolores's works were well received in Brazil during her lifetime, though some critics found her style more "masculine" (i.e. more forceful and self-assured) than was thought proper for a woman. For example, the writer Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto, in an otherwise highly positive appreciation of her work, criticized the crônicas for their sharp social commentary.