À custa da barba longa: Joaquim Manuel de Macedo e as expressões do memorialismo ficcional

Abstract

This dissertation proposes an interpretation of Brazilian literature, seeking to defend and systematize the literary form known as fictional memoir. The First Volume examines the dilemmas and progressive projects from the 1800s periodical press, aiming to understand its close association with political satire, culminating in an examination of the theoretical notions of novel, ideology, and fiction in current circulation during that period. The study also examines historical densities and patterns, as well as the social context of prose writing, based on the intellectual work of Joaquim Manuel de Macedo and the reevaluation of his image. In the Second Volume, this historiographical reconstruction provides the foundation for the presentation of the works comprising the diptych by the author’s nephew – A carteira do meu tio and Memórias do sobrinho do meu tio – which are brought together within a narrative lineage that includes Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias by Manuel Antônio de Almeida and Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis. The lives of Leonardo, the Nephew (or Mr. F), and Brás Cubas reveal tensions related to the crisis of political representation and class subjectivity, marked by a pernicious use of fictional language and the denial of the “other”. At the conclusion of the study, it is argued that the humorous tone of this fictional memoir constitutes a critical and satirical intervention and construction (or “playful-serious”, a usual expression at the time), through which one can glimpse the conflict of interests and conciliation of elite “clubs”, often designed to vie for influence over the public imagination regarding the country and reality.