%0 Journal Article %T Sob o signo do indecifrável: retrato e história nos romances da segunda fase machadiana %A Borowski, Gabriel %J Romanica Cracoviensia %V Tom 16 (2016) %R 10.4467/20843917RC.16.014.5935 %N Tom 16, Numer 3 %P 157-168 %K ficcional figuration, portrait, literature and history, Machado de Assis %@ 1732-8705 %D 2016 %U https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/romanica-cracoviensia/artykul/sob-o-signo-do-indecifravel-retrato-e-historia-nos-romances-da-segunda-fase-machadiana %X The present article is an analysis of the configuration of the narrative focus and its implications for the construction of three novels from the “second phase” of Machado de Assis’ ouvre: Casa Velha (1885), Dom Casmurro (1899) and Memorial de Aires (1908). We seek to shed new light on the problem faced by the Brazilian thinker at the end of 19th century, when his desire to understand the collective past was frustrated by the lack of a perspective capable of giving a full image of a heterogenous and strongly verticalized society. In order to exemplify this relationship, we propose to reflect on the role of portait as an intratextual representation of the narrative focus