The article analyzes the temporalization observed in the field of Brazilian publishing since the appearing of Companhia das Letras at the end of the 1980s. It interprets the extent of the latter's cultural prestige and distinction along three axis. Firstly, in opposition to economically dominant publishing houses such as Record and Ediouro; secondly, in opposition to a group of new publishers searching for a place in the publishing world inspired by the "professional" model established by the Companhia das Letras; lastly, it situates this differential space within a specific national publishing history, with its own dynamics of temporal and spatial production, its genealogies, and its publishing formulae. In this way, the article seeks to provide a basic organizing principle for the determination of states of fields of cultural production, and to contribute to the study of publishing's function in the construction of national culture.
