Machado de Assis

In this dissertation I argue that Machado de Assis's short stories represent an important forum for the articulation and understanding of concepts of race in modern Brazil. I substantiate that claim by analyzing ten of his short stories. My analysis provides examples from texts in which I show that the author approaches racial issues in a deeper and more complex narrative than do his contemporaries---and many of his successors as well. I arrive at and support that conclusion by applying "close reading" interpretation but without ignoring the socio-historical context in which Machado's works were produced and published. My assertion stands in opposition to the dominant view that the author was silent about racial-ethnic issues. As a part of its argument, my study identifies the strategy Machado uses to interrogate stereotypes, which involves exposing and calling into question, through his unique style, the limited dichotomy of attributed social and racial values of the time. In sum, the main issues approached in the text are: (1) How aracialized reading has established misconceptions that have heretofore prevented common readers and specialized critics alike from taking into consideration revealing aspects of characters, settings and plots in many of Machado's short stories; (2) Why the author did not (and would not) take part in so-called abolitionist literature; and (3) How the reader, offered this new perspective, can identify his representation, within short narrative, of non-white people of the Brazil of his time.