Machado de Assis : reflections on a Brazilian master writer / edited by Richard Graham.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Graham, Richard, 1934-

Series:

Critical reflections on Latin America series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Machado de Assis, 1839-1908. Dom Casmurro.

Machado de Assis.

Machado de Assis, 1839-1908--Criticism and interpretation.

Machado de Assis, 1839-1908.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xiii, 134 pages ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press : Institute of Latin American Studies, 1999.

Summary:

JOAQUIM MARIA MACHADO DE ASSIS (1839-1908) never left Brazil and rarely traveled outside his native city of Rio de Janeiro, yet he is widely acknowledged by those who have read him as one of the major authors of the nineteenth century. His works are full of subtle irony, relentless psychological insights, and brilliant literary innovations. Yet, because he wrote in Portuguese, a language outside the mainstream of Western culture, those with access to his writings are relatively few.

This book is designed not only to call new attention to this master but also to raise questions about the nature of literature itself and current alternative views on how it can be approached. Four essays address the question of Machado's "realism" in the five masterpiece novels of his maturity, especially Dom Casmurro. The noted contributors include John Gledson (University of Liverpool), Joao Adolfo Hansen (Universidade de Sao Paulo), Sidney Chalhoub (Universidade de Campinas), and Daphne Patai (University of Massachusetts at Amherst).

Dain Borges of the University of California at San Diego says, "(This is the) only collection explicitly debating the question that polarizes contemporary Brazilian criticism of Machado de Assis: was he a sophisticated late realist, or was he a pioneering anti-realist, even a postmodernist? The (essayists) marshal their evidence and argument with virtuosity and arrive at sharply opposing conclusions."

Contents:

Dom Casmurro : realism and intentionalism revisited / John Gledson

Dom Casmurro : simulacrum and allegory / João Adolfo Hansen

Dependents play chess : political dialogues in Machado de Assis / Sidney Chalhoub

Machado in English / Daphne Patai.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [117]-122) and index.

ISBN:

0292728212

0292728220

OCLC:

40734820