Professor Sabrina Karpa-Wilson
email: skarpawi@indiana.edu

P676
Machado de Assis

MW 1:00pm - 2:15pm/section# 3824/3cr./Ballantine Hall 011

A maverick in his time, a writer who eschewed bombastic nationalism
and the rhetorical and thematic mannerisms of Romanticism and
Naturalism in favor of subtly ironic urban portraits, Machado de
Assis has rightly enjoyed the status of Brazil's greatest prose
writer since his death in 1908. In this course we will follow the
trajectory of his novelistic production, starting with an early, so-
called romantic novel, "Iaiá Garcia", and ending with his last
novel, "Memorial de Aires." Time permitting, we will also read
several of his short stories. In addition, we will attempt to get a
handle on the immense body of criticism about the writer's work. Some
of the questions we might explore: Are there formal and thematic
constants in Machado's writings? How, if at all, do his later texts
differ from his earlier ones For example, is the commonplace
distinction between his "romantic" works and his "realist" ones valid
or useful?. What kinds of questions have critics tended to focus on
and why? Are there blind spots in this criticism? Should, for
instance, the writer's biography be a significant factor in
assessments of his work?

Requirements: Two written critical reviews of two Machado studies,
which will also be presented orally in class; a final paper.