TY - JOUR TI - Under the sign of the ideciphrable: portaits and history in Machado de Assis' second phase novels AU - Borowski, Gabriel TI - Under the sign of the ideciphrable: portaits and history in Machado de Assis' second phase novels AB - 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 VL - Volume 16 (2016) IS - Volume 16, Issue 1 PY - 2016 SN - 1732-8705 C1 - 2084-3917 SP - 157 EP - 168 DO - 10.4467/20843917RC.16.014.5935 UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/romanica-cracoviensia/article/sob-o-signo-do-indecifravel-retrato-e-historia-nos-romances-da-segunda-fase-machadiana KW - ficcional figuration KW - portrait KW - literature and history KW - Machado de Assis