THE DUSK OF WRITING: MACHADO DE ASSIS’S LAST PAGES A ND THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE OF BRAZIL: English

Pedro Meira Monteiro

doi:10.14195/2183-847X_6_2

Authors

Pedro Meira Monteiro Universidade de Princeton

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-847X_6_2

Keywords:

Machado de Assis, Memorial de Aires, história e literatura, estilo tardio

Abstract

In Machado de Assis’s last novel, Counselor Aires’s Memorial (1908), the main characters see themselves stuck between, on the one hand, an “abolished past”, which is related to the vanishing Empire and the end of slavery, and, on the other hand, the absence of any future. The sense of hopelessness is conveyed by a powerful poetic depiction of a world that cannot be changed. Therefore, this article aims to show how slowness and the lack of
definition in Machado’s late production is a cryptic, but profound critique of the unfulfi lled promises of the Brazilian Republic.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Pedro Meira Monteiro, Universidade de Princeton

Pedro Meira Monteiro is professor and chair in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University. Working in the intersection of intellectual history and literature, he has combined academic production with the writing of shorter texts for cultural magazines, blogs and newspapers. He has edited and authored several books, among them Mário de Andrade e Sérgio Buarque de Holanda: Correspondência (2012), The First Class: Transits of Brazilian Literature Abroad (also available in Portuguese and Spanish, 2014), Signo e desterro: Sérgio Buarque de Holanda e a imaginação do Brasil (2015), and Futuro abolido: Machado de Assis e o Memorial de Aires (tempo, história e literatura) (forthcoming).

Pedro Meira Monteiro é professor e chefe do Departamento de Espanhol e Português na Princeton University, nos Estados Unidos. Trabalhando sobre história intelectual e literatura, tem combinado a produção acadêmica à escrita de textos curtos para revistas culturais, blogs e jornais. É autor e organizador de diversos livros, entre eles Mário de Andrade e Sérgio Buarque de Holanda: Correspondência (2012), A primeira aula: trânsitos da literatura brasileira no estrangeiro (disponível também em inglês e espanhol, 2014), Signo e desterro: Sérgio Buarque de Holanda e a imaginação do Brasil (2015), e Futuro abolido: Machado de Assis e o Memorial de Aires (tempo, história e literatura) (no prelo).