The author and his masks: Cervantes y Machado de Assis

Abstract

Cervantes and Machado de Assis, as their great novels – Don Quixote and Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas - arose in two crucial historical and aesthetic moments. Their works contributed to a new approach both in the treatment of the author and in the narrative structure. For different reasons, Machado and Cervantes decided to hide behind fictional characters. The masking of the author was due to necessity, considering that from feigned anonymity, as well as from humor, both novelists could describe more freely the societies in which they lived.