The crisis of the Brazilian monarchical regime was accompanied by the emergence and expansion of the republican movement at the end of the 19th century. During that period, the press not only became the stage of institutional debates but also had the role of an informal power, linked to the government and political party organization. It was a press that expressed opinions and created a space for partisan commentary. Newspaper columns were used to anonymously air that which could not be expressed publicly in the Legislative Assembly, the Senate or the House of Representatives, thus constituting an alternative tribune for debate. This article seeks to give voice to the different republican models that circulated within these state of Paraná newspapers, relating them to the configurations they were a part of and with the position that they held within local and national fields of power. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that the dominant republican ideas were not disseminated without resistance: rather, they were heard and combated at the local level, although efforts in this regard remained lacking in political force. Our analysis incorporates the Bourdieusian perspective according to which discourses are not only signs to be understood and decoded but also status indicators -seeking to be validated and evaluated - and forms of authority, seeking to be believed and obeyed; in both cases, object of struggles over symbolic power. Analysis of republican discourse shows that Paraná state politics of the late 19th century was more a result of alliances and tensions between groups than the fruit of clear ideological stands. Discourses served mostly as rhetorical weapons which were used to orient intra-elite conflict, moved by the desire for participation. This gave them a generic character, based on a notion of putting an end to privilege without widening citizenship rights.
Republicanism; Paraná state; political journalism; federalism; political field