PLCS 13/14 (2005)
Acts of Reading

"Hamlet" the Brazilian Way (Machado, Reader of Shakespeare)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62791/b3p3hb20

Published 2016-09-20

Abstract

Abstract: Through a re-reading of the gravediggers’ scene in Hamlet, this article explores one of the ways in which Machado de Assis appropriates one of Shakespeare’s major tragedies, focusing on the parodic procedures employed by the Brazilian writer in his chronicle “A Cena do Cemitério.” My main purpose is to investigate how the European tradition is incorporated in this short text, arguing that Machado displaces the function normally played by European literature from model to motif, used here for parodic and critical ends.