Philosophy and tragedy: the process of reification in Quincas Borba

• Grant number: 13/50933-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Books published in Brazil
• Start date: February 01, 2014
• End date: January 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Brazilian Literature
• Principal Investigator: Cilaine Alves Cunha
• Grantee: Cilaine Alves Cunha
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In the narrative of Machado de Assis, form and content are still under intense debate among critics and readers. Amid the socioeconomic changes at the very end of the nineteenth century, there has been also in the Machadiana narrow tie the dialectics between the assertions of the inheritance idea as a means of social ascendancy and at the same time its negation through the opportunism of Cristiano de Almeida e Palha. As one of numerous traits seen in Quincas Borba, the regime of self-preservation struggle exposes the main character to opportunists and, ultimately, submits him to the financial expropriation after inheriting his fortune. After having his wealth squandered and has gone mad, Rubião retimes to Barbacena, place of origin in the county, to understand the tragic form of to the winners, the potatoes narrative, which can be considered a wild synthetic formula at work in the Brazilian imperial court of the hoaxers. Thus, the main objective of this dissertation has been devoted to discuss the process of reitification of the individual, emphasizing the traditional presence of the high social status and the ascension of bourgeois habits acting simultaneously. (AU)