"Kissed by the Muses:" Machado de Assis and Autodidacticism in 19th Century Rio de Janeiro

• In Event: Three Capital Figures of 19th-Century Brazilian Literature

Abstract

A part of a larger project on autodidacticism and literature, this paper intends to give a response to the following question: What can be defined as "autodidacticism" in 19th century Rio de Janeiro, and how does being self-taught relate to the work of Machado de Assis, himself an autodidact? In order to achieve this purpose, the study explores the educational system of 19th century Rio de Janeiro, relying on the work of Alessandra Frota Martinez de Schueler, and how it relates to Machado, a mulatto born in 1839 to a house painter and a washerwoman. Based on the analysis, the thesis is put forward that Machado de Assis' originality and his so called fragmentary, repetitive, quasi-plagiaristic novelistic style that breaks with literary conventions and the European tradition (Realism, Naturalism) is due to his self-acquired education. As an autodidact – a term often negatively connoted, yet widely understudied and underestimated– Machado pieced together his own work from readings in (public and private) libraries, and created one of the most intriguing literary approaches that nineteenth century Latin America had perhaps hitherto seen. By exploring the possible connection between autodidacticism and Machado's literary production, I hope to offer a new way of understanding the "bruxo do Cosme Velho."

Author

• Ana Ilievska, University of Chicago