Aroud and about Brás Cubas: literatura, science and female characters in Machado de Assis

Author(s)

Daniele Maria Megid

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2012-02-27

Examining board members

Sidney Chalhoub; Jefferson Cano; Daniela Magalhães da Silveira

• Advisor: Sidney Chalhoub

Abstract

The novel Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas was published for the first time in 1880, on the pages of Revista Brazileira. The main goal of this thesis was to analyze this novel written by Machado de Assis in the periodical where it first appeared. The intention was to identify the themes addressed in the literary text and to understand the interpretations that could have been raised among its first readers. Thus, reading the novel in the periodical allows realizing that one of Machado?s main concerns was to fight against realist literature that was based on a scientific approach. According to the author, these two elements represented a society where appearances overcame reality, perpetuating injustices. In Machado?s novel, this esthetic criticism - that assumes also the role of a social criticism - appears through the actions of his female characters, who made evident the fiction of the world where they lived and showed the available alternatives to escape from everyday oppressions (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/03504-1 - Politic in literary debates: Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas and revista brasileira
• Grantee: Daniele Maria Megid
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master