Machado de Assis: literary representation of the end of Brazil's second empire period

Abstract

Our purpose is to examine the relations between certain literary procedures used in Esau and Jacob and Counselor Ayres’ Memorial (also translated as The Wager: Aires’ Journal), and socio-political and historical elements present in the transition from the Empire to the Republic, both represented in these two novels by Machado de Assis. We aim to show how – by means of structural and linguistic choices concerning the bonds between narrator, focalization and characters – the writer brings into discussion important subjects of the Brazilian society at that moment. Contrary to what is pointed out by some critics, there is a critique of the social and power relations in these narratives. The way in which the writer conducts his reflection on these relations gives rise to new researches.