- Born:
- June 21, 1839, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Died:
- September 29, 1908, Rio de Janeiro (aged 69)
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
-
Who was Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis?
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839–1908) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Machado de Assis is considered a master of Brazilian literature, whose work is rooted in European culture, while also going beyond the scope of Brazilian literary movements.
Growing up in a lower-class household, Machado de Assis rose the social ladder and is known for his mordant social critique of Rio de Janeiro’s bourgeoisie. In 1896, Machado de Assis founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters and served as its president.
His notable works include Dom Casmurro and Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What is Machado de Assis known for in Brazilian literature?
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839–1908) is known as a classic master of Brazilian literature. His writing is rooted in European traditions, yet it transcends the influence of Brazilian literary schools. Machado de Assis is recognized for his mordant social critiques of Rio de Janeiro’s bourgeoisie society during the second half of the 19th century.
Machado de Assis's most celebrated works include:
* Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881)
* Dom Casmurro (1899)His narrative style is considered modern because of his deft use of point of view, first-person narration, and subtle irony. In 1896, Machado de Assis founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters and served as its president.
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What are some famous books written by Machado de Assis?
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was a Brazilian novelist, poet, and short story writer. Machado de Assis is considered a master of Brazilian literature, whose art is rooted in European culture.
Famous books by Machado de Assis:
* Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881; Epitaph of a Small Winner)
* Quincas Borba (1891; Philosopher or Dog?)
* Dom Casmurro (1899)
* Esaú e Jacó (1904; Esau and Jacob)
* Memorial de Ayres (1908; Counselor Ayres’ Memorial)2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What style of writing did Machado de Assis use in his novels?
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, a master of Brazilian literature, employed an original and indirect writing style that set him apart from the literary conventions of his time. His style is characterized by free association, digression, subtle irony, and a deep-rooted pessimism, which he disguised with flippancy and wit.
Machado de Assis broadened the horizon of the Brazilian novel using first-person narration and a deft point of view. His works often featured a mordant social critique of Rio de Janeiro’s bourgeoisie.
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How did Machado de Assis’s background influence his stories?
Machado de Assis's background significantly shaped his stories. Born to a house painter of mixed black and Portuguese ancestry and raised by a stepmother of similar heritage, his humble origins contrast sharply with the aristocratic settings of his works. Despite social barriers, he ascended the sociocultural ladder, gaining a deep understanding of Brazilian society.
His writing often critiques the bourgeoisie of Rio de Janeiro with subtle irony and psychological depth, exploring themes like social class, injustice, and human follies. Machado de Assis's unique narrative style, characterized by first-person narration and a cynical point of view, allowed him to dissect Brazilian society with both wit and disillusionment.
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Why is Machado de Assis considered one of the greatest authors in Brazilian history?
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839–1908) is considered a master of Brazilian literature because his art is rooted in European traditions yet transcends Brazilian literary schools. Machado de Assis employed a modern narrative style using first-person narration and subtle irony.
His reputation rests on Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (Epitaph of a Small Winner), his short stories, and two later novels—Quincas Borba (Philosopher or Dog?) and Dom Casmurro. In 1896, Machado became the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (born June 21, 1839, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—died September 29, 1908, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, and short-story writer, a classic master of Brazilian literature, whose art is rooted in the traditions of European culture and transcends the influence of Brazilian literary schools.
The son of a house painter of mixed black and Portuguese ancestry, he was raised, after his mother’s death, by a stepmother, also of mixed parentage. Sickly, epileptic, unprepossessing in appearance, and a stutterer, he found employment at the age of 17 as a printer’s apprentice and began to write in his spare time. Soon he was publishing stories, poems, and novels in the Romantic tradition.
By 1869 Machado was a typically successful Brazilian man of letters, comfortably provided for by a government position and happily married to a cultured woman, Carolina Augusta Xavier de Novais. In that year illness forced him to withdraw from his active career. He emerged from this temporary retreat with a new novel in a strikingly original style that marked a clear break with the literary conventions of the day. This was Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881; “The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas”; Epitaph of a Small Winner, 1952), an eccentric first-person narrative with a flow of free association and digression. The “small winner,” Brás Cubas, cynically reviews his life in 160 short, often disconnected chapters.
Machado’s reputation of being among the greatest of Brazilian writers rests on this work, his short stories, and two later novels—Quincas borba (1891; Philosopher or Dog?, 1954) and his masterpiece, Dom Casmurro (1899; Eng. trans., 1953), a haunting and terrible journey into a mind warped by jealousy. Translations into English of his shorter fiction included The Devil’s Church, and Other Stories (1977), The Psychiatrist, and Other Stories (1963), A Chapter of Hats: Selected Stories (2008), and The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis (2018).
Urbane, aristocratic, cosmopolitan, aloof, and cynical, Machado used an indirect style in his fiction that could confound later scholars and critics attempting to determine his level of social engagement. One generation of critics might argue that he ignored such social questions as Brazilian independence and the abolition of slavery; a subsequent generation could find evidence of the opposite. His worldview tempered what might be called a “typical” contemporary Brazilian enthusiasm for local colour and self-conscious nationalism, but the locale of his fiction is usually a keenly observed Rio, which he took for granted as though there were no other place. The natural world is practically nonexistent in his work. His writing shows a deep-rooted pessimism and disillusionment that would be unbearable were it not disguised by flippancy and wit.
In 1896 Machado became the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, and he held the office until his death.
For a discussion of Machado in the context of the history of Brazilian literature, see Brazilian literature: Emergence of the republic.
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