Machado de Assis’ <i>Balas de Estalo</i>: humour and politic in Imperial Brazil

Abstract

This article examines Machado de Assis’ participation, under the pseudonym Lélio, in the collective series “Balas de Estalo”, published between 1883 and 1886 in the periodical Gazeta de Notícias. In the middle of urban change context, of immigration, abolitionism, “Balas de Estalo” helped the creation of a political project based on the decline of the country’s main institutions, such as monarchy, Catholic Church and slavery. The subject of this research is to understand how Machado de Assis took part in this collective series, how he created his character Lélio and, finally, which was his view of the imperial politics in the late 19^th century. Keywords: Empire. Brazilian press. Writers. Brazilian history. Imperial politics.