To the losers, the forest-Alexandra lucas coelho reading mário de andrade and machado de assis

Abstract

This essay debates the images of Brazil provided by Alexandra Lucas Coelho in her novels, Vai, Brasil (2013), Deus-dara (2016) and A nossa alegria chegou (2018), by showing how they relate to the images of Brazil in the works of Mario deAndrade and Machado de Assis. In this sense, I depart from the suggestion that Vai, Brasil is more closely related to Machado de Assis, while Deus-dara and A nossa alegria chegou to Mario de Andrade, to argue that this shift, maybe paradoxically, led Lucas Coelho to develop a transatlantic and postcolonial description of Luso-Afro-Brazilian interactions at the expense of a version of Brazil that appears to be less ecological.