Machado de Assis: A Keen Look at Nineteenth-Century Brazilian Identity

Abstract

Abstract: In this essay it is argued that if we look at Machado de Assis’ works, we may understand that we are dealing with an author who had a very clear understanding not only of the reality of his own time and country but also of “human nature.” In Assis’ work, the picture of deep, intricate, unspoken, delicate, and always present questions related to ethnicity, which afflicted a society that did not recognize itself as being of African descent, foreshadowed facts and readings that would turn up strongly by the end of the twentieth century.