MACHADO DE ASSIS READS THE TELEGRAMS

Abstract

Between 1892 and 1897, when Machado de Assis published his last series of chronicles, in Gazeta de Notícias, the heading “Telegramas” was already well established in Rio de Janeiro's periodicals. In it, news from Brazil and abroad were published in a synthetic way. The columnist of “A Semana” read with particular concern the content brought by the telegraph. In this article, we intend to demonstrate that the writer-journalist critically commented on these texts, emphasizing the imprecision of the information reported in this genre and, with that, carried out a fruitful reflection on the journalistic activity of his time. To develop this hypothesis, we will analyze excerpts from chronicles in which this gesture is verifiable.