Helder Macedo and his contemporary

dialogues with Machado de Assis, Camões and Almeida Garrett

Abstract

Helder Macedo’s work – essayistic, novelistic, poetic – has, in each of them, echoes of the others. For some time now, specialized critics have noticed recurrences, whether thematic – such as dreams and borders –, intertextual – invoking his favorite authors, as is the case of Almeida Garrett and Machado de Assis – or metafictional – encouraging questions about authorship or the limits between reality and fiction, for example. Such schisms highlight the fact that works of art are not closed in themselves and that the many faces of an author do not function in sealed compartments, separated from each other. Therefore, in analytical work, it is often necessary to go beyond the text presented to us if we wish to swim in deeper waters, a need that becomes much more severe in a work as self-referential as Macedo’s one. The aim, therefore, is to contribute to the understanding of Helder Macedo’s work through the essays he dedicates to his favorite authors and with whom he maintains a constant dialogue – both in novels and poetry –, pointing out how his intertextual choices aren’t mere aesthetic facts, but the ethical and political positioning of its author.