Ancient names, modern characters: rhetorical-poetic tradition and literary modernity in Machado de Assis

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze how Machado de Assis appropriated the rhetorical-poetic tradition, rewrote and updated traditional poetic genres - in particular, the classic tragedy - through the use of antonomasia. The writer used this rhetorical procedure, which produces a double naming of the character, throughout his career, in the most diverse genres he practiced. Analyzing this occurrence in three short stories - “Virginius: narrative of a lawyer” (1864), “What are the girls” (1866), and “Pílades e Orestes” (1903), I intend to demonstrate the changes that went through the contradictory relationship between rhetorical-poetic tradition and literary modernity in Machado de Assis. In the second phase of his work, unlike what happened in the first, modern characters were taken as legitimate heirs to the old names. Using the names of the tragedy to translate the history of contemporary characters, Machado de Assis broke with the separation of styles, typical of the rhetorical-poetic regime, and demonstrated his full adherence to the modern concept of literature.