.

Abstract

This text deals with the connections between literature and society, mainly the transformations of the modern city and the way the modernizing processes interfere with the space and social relations. The diversity introduced by modernity has transformed the space of cities into a place of contradictions, paradoxes and ambiguities, as can be seen ia urban images and signs. Built as an emblem of the first great work of the Brazilian republican period, the city of Belo Horizonte represents the new mentality that came up to replace the marks left by the years of the imperial domination. The occupation of the urban space occurred in a hierarchical and segregating way, representing a urban model created to control the masses. This text analyses the chronicles written by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and published by Minas Gerais newspaper from 1930 to 1934, which show how the author built his representations of the modern city.