“Cross that border, close that gap”: Fonsequian cinematic literature as an intangible asset

Abstract

This article will employ literature from emerging fields of studies in
Economics, Accounting and Business to argue for the possibility of monetizing Rubem
Fonseca’s Intellectual Capital. The present research on Sociology of Literature is based
on the results of a dissertation on Intermediality which took as object the language of film
in the Brazilian contemporary writer Rubem Fonseca’s literary fiction (cf. Lopes, 2021).
This dissertation had concluded that Fonseca’s appropriation of the rhetoric of film is
instrumental in enhancing the realism, immediacy and readability of the novels, and
therefore in increasing their salability.
Fueled by cinema, the accessibility of Fonseca’s broadbrow fiction will be framed
in a postmodernist protocol of reading capable of crossing the border between high and
lowbrow audiences, thus closing a sociologic gap between elites and masses. With a view
to boosting the healthy sales of Fonseca’s books in Portugal even further, this article will suggest that Fonseca’s publishers market his ingenious transmedial recipe for commercial
success to low and middlebrow market segments the writing of Fonseca is accessible to,
but which, according to the evidence presented in the Appendix of the aforementioned
dissertation, do not yet consume his books.
This article will further propose a strategy for the measurement of Rubem Fonseca’s
value as an intangible asset of Sextante, Rubem Fonseca’s Portuguese publishing house.
The microeconomic benefits of such monetization for the company will be highlighted.
The benefits of increasing the sales of Fonseca’s broadbrow literature at the
macroeconomic level will also be emphasized, namely the generation of wealth and
promotion of sustainability through the extension of literacy.