BEGINNING AND ENDING OF THE POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS OF BRÁS CUBAS: CONNECTIONS WITH THE BIBLE, SLAVERY, AND RHETORIC

Abstract

Beginning and end are strategic positions. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the structural role of these narrative limits in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, where the presence of the Scriptures is both at the opening and closing of the novel. The main theoretical sources for this article include Del Lungo (2003), Bakhtin (1987), Hutcheon (1987), Fávero (1994), Duarte (2008), Aristotle (2005) and Quintilian (2015). Machado made free use of biblical sources, in a parodic and carnivalesque way, to denounce the dysfunctional aspects of society in his time, such as slavery, in convergence with assumed pessimism; the author is aware of the structural role of the parts of the novel's narrative and handles them with rhetorical and fictional skill.