[pt] Esta dissertação tem como objetivo apresentar uma leitura das crônicas de Rubem Braga a partir do contato com o arquivo do escritor. Procurei delinear minha leitura destacando as cartas recebidas pelo escritor, tanto as de leitores quanto as de literatos. Paralelamente, voltei o foco para depoimentos e entrevistas do cronista e artigos sobre ele publicados na imprensa jornalística. Mesmo lendo as crônicas publicadas em livro, foi pela ótica do leitor empírico de jornal que busquei compreender a sensibilidade artística e afetiva do cronista, montando um contraponto entre as crônicas e as cartas dos leitores comuns ou de seus pares. Observando o jornal, suporte da recepção, encaminhei reflexões sobre o espaço modelar da crônica e, em especial, sobre algumas de suas características (lingüísticas, estilísticas, temáticas) que possibilitam a mediação entre a cultura erudita, a folclórica e a popular. Para destacar a importância literária, cultural e política do cronista, examinei a relação entre o escritor e o gênero (a crônica) e entre o gênero e o veículo (o jornal). / [en] This dissertation has as objective to present a reading of Rubem Braga`s chronicles through the contact with his archive. I have intended to delineate my reading by detaching Braga`s passive correspondence, written as far by readers as by others writers. Parallel to that, I have focused on his depositions and interviews, as well as on articles published about him in the journalistic press. Although I have been reading his chronicles published in books, it was through the optics of the empirical reader of newspaper that I have attempted to understand Braga`s artistic and affective sensitivity, trying to build up a counterpoint between the chronicles and the letters by the common readers or by his literary pairs. Observing the newspaper, support of the reception, I have directed reflections on the modelled space of the chronicle and, in special, on some of its characteristics (linguistic, stylistic, thematic) which have made possible the mediation between the erudite, the folklorical and the popular culture. To emphasize on Braga`s literary, cultural and political importance, I have examined the relation between the writer and the chronicle and between the chronicle and the vehicle (the newspaper).