Apropriações brechtianas na crítica de Roberto Schwarz: teatro épico e a função do leitor em Machado de Assis

Abstract

This article explores how Bertolt Brecht’s ideas about epic theater may have influenced Roberto Schwarz’s interpretation of Machado de Assis, especially  his  view  of the  reader’s  role  in A Master on the Periphery of Capitalism (1990). The  article  argues  that Roberto Schwarzidentifies  a  strategy  in  Machado’s  prose analogous to Brecht’s estrangement effect. While Brecht breaks with theatrical illusion to provoke reflection, Machado destabilizes readers with an unreliable and ironic narrator, forcing them to question  naturalized  social relations. The analysis reveals that, when examining Machado, Roberto Schwarz implicitly mobilizes Brechtian categories (albeit in a negative sense). This demonstrates that  both  authors  developed avant-garde forms of politicising art in different contexts.