Mãe contra pai: resistência e representação da escravidão na literatura machadiana

Abstract

This monograph aims to investigate the period of slavery in Brazil, narrated by Machado de Assis, especially his short story “Pai Contra Mãe”. We will, at first, analyze Machado's narrative about the Cândido Neves story and his persecution of the fugitive slave, and then temporally contextualize his fictional writing before the moment of slavery. In the end, the intention is to understand the importance of Machado's literature for the understanding of slavery processes during the imperial regime in Brazil. We intend to problematize Machado's literature in the historiographic scope of the story, questioning and inquiring about the historical concepts referred to the object of the document and whether literature can indeed fit this same classification for historical research. Last but not least, this work will attempt to correlate the biography and production of Agostinho Marques Perdigão Malheiro as a historical problematizer of slavery and its abolition.