Machado de Assis “cronista”: “Bons Dias!” on the reverse of the republic

Abstract

In this article we intend to demonstrate how Machado de Assis criticizes the project of renationalization of Brazil, in the late nineteenth century, through a relatively new genre: the “crônica”. We investigated the hypothesis that he makes use of discursive constructions that can be considered rhetoric, to dismantle the discourse which fitted the project of renationalization of Brazil but at the same time made it possible to keep him as part of the intellectual system and of the Brazilian elite of his time. Aiming at the proposed investigation, we analyzed three chronicles from the series “Bons Dias!”, which present the abolition of slavery and the republic as their thematic unit. This series consists of 49 chronicles; 48 published in the newspaper Gazeta de Notícias, from April 5th, 1888 to August 29th, 1889.