10.26180/5c9d924c89c43
Carolina Baptista Biasoli
Carolina Baptista
Biasoli
Andrew McLeod
Andrew
McLeod
Círculo vicioso incompleto: Misplaced ideas and the non-circulation of the poetry of Machado de Assis
Monash University
2019
Machado de Assis
Poetry
Roberto Schwarz
Misplaced Ideas
Brazilian
Literary Studies not elsewhere classified
2019-03-29 07:19:17
Journal contribution
https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/C_rculo_vicioso_incompleto_Misplaced_ideas_and_the_non-circulation_of_the_poetry_of_Machado_de_Assis/7914590
<p>The
poetry of nineteenth-century Brazilian writer Machado de Assis offers a
fascinating case study of literary and cultural circulation between Latin America
and Europe. While all nine of his novels and many short stories have now been
translated into English, more than a century after his death only a handful of
his roughly 200 poems have been translated into English. Through Roberto
Schwarz’s framework of “misplaced ideas,” this paper examines the role Machado
played in importing external cultural elements into Brazil through his poetry,
criticism, translations, and novels, and interrogates the conditions that have
contributed to the failure of his poetry to reach the Anglophone world. Using
Machado’s own essay on the Brazilian literary instinct, as well as José Luís
Jobim’s work on both circulation and Machado’s development as a writer, this
paper also helps place Machado’s poetry within the scheme of his larger
literary project, encompassing his novels, short stories, poetry, and literary
and cultural criticism.</p>