<i>Quincas Borba</i>´s rewriting by a watchmaker

Abstract

The confrontation among different editions of novels and tales of Machado de Assis allows us to conclude that he looks at his own productions as a critical reader who reformulates them in the rewriting act. This procedure is expressed in works such as Iaiá Garcia and Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas, standing out especially in Quincas Borba. When rewriting the version that had been published in fascicles in the magazine A Estação, Machado promotes ample structural and discoursive changes. In this article by means of the confrontation of the four initial chapters of the book Quincas Borba with those which had given origin to them one finds changes made under the angle of the discourse. These alterations interfere with the composition of the events and the characters, they contribute to modify the image of the narrator and the narratee, present in the novel in one or another vehicle, and provoke distinct effects in the receiver, determining equally, that the image of the reader be distinct. In the same way, the confrontation between the two versions of Quincas Borba proves that the option of Machado de Assis for the exercise of writing as an artisan practice allows us to infer the poetics that underlies the process of the creation of his fiction. Keywords: Machado de Assis. Rewriting act. Quincas Borba. Editions’ confrontation.