PLCS 13/14 (2005)
Interpretations

Machado de Assis on Popular Music: A Case for Cultural Studies in Nineteenth-Century Latin America

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  • Idelber Avelar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62791/w7xcj653

Published 2017-03-16

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Abstract

Abstract: Dialoguing with a recent essay by composer and critic José Miguel Wisnik, this article discusses Machado de Assis’ “Um Homem Célebre” and “O Machete” against the background of the music of nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro, particularly the evolution of polka into the first Brazilian urban genre, the maxixe. The premise is that Machado’s fiction can help us rethink a number of questions pertaining to the then emerging realm of mass culture, the professionalization of musicians and writers, and the complex interaction between Brazilian and European cultures in the nineteenth century.

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