Machado de Assis
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This is In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 and this is one of more than a thousand episodes you can find in the In Our Time archive. A reading list for this edition can be found in the episode description wherever you're listening. I hope you enjoy the programme. Hello. Machado de Assis is considered the towering figure of modern Brazilian literature, with a global reputation, although arguably not as much as he deserves. The descendant of slaves, Machado wrote many of his novels and almost 200 short stories before Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, the last country in the Americas to do so. And while he vividly critiques the slave-owning classes, he transcends that time and place. In Salman Rushdie's view, his works seem to have been written yesterday, not a hundred years ago.
With me to discuss Machado de Assis are Ana Claudia Suriani da Silva, Associate Professor in Brazilian Studies at University College London. Clare Williams, Professor of Brazilian Literature and Culture at the Faculty of Modern Languages at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Peter's College. And Viviane Cavalho da Anunciação, Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. And Viviane, it's to you that I come first. Can you tell us something about Machado's early life in Rio de Janeiro?
Machado just sees it sometimes called the greatest Brazilian writer, but I come to think of him as the Pelé of literature. Machado did the same thing as Pelé did for football. He inherited an European tradition, mastered it and transformed it completely, creating it something unmistakably Brazilian and original. And Machado de Assis was born in Rio de Janeiro, a burgeoning city. He was the son of Francisco José de Assis and Mariela Paulina Machado de Assis. His father was a painter. descendant from freed slaves, and his mother was an Azorean washerwoman. He grew up in an affluent neighborhood, but connected to a working class family. He was baptized by Donna Maria José de Mendonça, the wife of a senator.
So he grew up going in and out of her mansion and going back to his working class family.
So what was his relationship with the wealthy family?
She was his godmother and he would go to her house to have meals and to be with her.
So just to make it clear, what was that relationship between a relatively poor family, working class? How come he has this relationship with a wealthy family?
Well, it's where his father and mother would work. This is basically where he would paint their houses, she would wash their clothes. And that was a patronage relationship.
And what were the prospects for a young boy like Machado at the time in Brazil, given his background and this relationship of dependency with the wealthy family?
It was very slim. It was believed that he was going to follow the footsteps of his father and become rich. a painter or some sort of manual worker. But effectively, his health wasn't so great. So he started working, selling sweets, but then he wasn't strong enough. And developing this incredible intelligence for literature, he transcended his background.
So although illiteracy in Brazil at this time is very high, I think around 70%, he nonetheless has access to books and reading because of that relationship with the wealthy family.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–9:06
2
Who was Machado de Assis and why is he considered a towering figure of Brazilian literature?
9:06–15:45
3
How did Machado’s mixed-class upbringing and patronage shape his early life in Rio de Janeiro?
15:45–41:35
4
How did Machado transition from translator and poet to a successful short story writer for periodicals?
41:35–55:57