I-Narrator and Literary Persona in Machado de Assis' chronicles and Charles Lamb's essays

Abstract

This project researches the affinities between the essays of Charles Lamb (1775-1832), principally Essays of Elia, a serialized publication for The London Magazine, and the series of chronicles written by Machado de Assis (1839-1908) from the uniform behavior of an "I" narrator who comments on daily life incidents in light of his memories and life experiences. Either through pseudonyms or anonymity, both Lamb and Machado developed in their serialized publications a narrator who partly stands for a projection onto themselves, partly for a fictitious literary persona. Therefore, this research reexamines a debate dear to a generation of Brazilian intellectuals who dwelt on the formal affinities between the English periodical essay, also known as the familiar essay, and a specific kind of chronicle developed in 19th century Brazil. Both the familiar essay and Brazilian chronicles, as pointed out by these intellectuals: - Vinicius de Moraes, Afrânio Coutinho, Alexandre Eulálio, Eugênio Gomes, and many others, - are sharpened by the light, ironic, familiar, and confessional tone oriented towards the ephemerides of daily life. In the specific case of this research, on Lamb's essays and Machado's chronicles, the hypothesis is that the wide range of topics in these authors' series, gathered from the various walks and turns through life and through periodicals, agglutinates in a unifying voice that poetically reworks personal and collective memories.