Vulnerability, Resistance, and the Street in the Work of Machado de Assis

Rex P. Nielson

Abstract

Few authors from Brazil explore the concepts of risk and vulnerability like the writer Machado de Assis. In particular, street scenes in Machado’s work reveal aspects of vulnerability that may not be readily acknowledged or understood. Machado’s fictional representations of the street expose inequalities correlating to both race and gender, failures by the state to ensure public security for all, and limits to human agency. A study of the conditions of vulnerability that are uniquely manifest in the streets of Machado’s fiction elucidates our understanding of social organization in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro.

Resumo

Poucos autores do Brasil analisam os conceitos de risco e vulnerabilidade como o escritor Machado de Assis. Em particular, as cenas de rua na obra de Machado revelam aspectos de vulnerabilidade que possivelmente não sejam imediatamente reconhecidos ou compreendidos. As representações da rua na obra de Machado expõem as desigualdades que se correlacionam com raça e gênero, fracassos do Estado para garantir a segurança pública para todos e limites para o arbítrio humano. Um estudo das condições de vulnerabilidade que se manifestam unicamente nas ruas da ficção de Machado elucida nossa compreensão da organização social no Rio de Janeiro do século XIX.

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