{"product_id":"9781611861815","title":"Machado de Assis: Toward a Poetics of Emulation","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book offers an alternative explanation for one of the core dilemmas of Brazilian literary criticism: the “midlife crisis” Machado de Assis underwent from 1878 to 1880, the result of which was the writing of \u003ci\u003eThe Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as the remarkable production of his mature years—with an emphasis on his masterpiece, \u003ci\u003eDom Casmurro\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the center of this alternative explanation, Castro Rocha situates the fallout from the success enjoyed by Eça de Queirós with the publication of \u003ci\u003eCousin Basílio \u003c\/i\u003eand Machado’s two long texts condemning the author and his work. Literary and aesthetic rivalries come to the fore, allowing for a new theoretical framework based on a literary appropriation of “thick description,” the method proposed by anthropologist Clifford Geertz. From this method, Castro Rocha derives his key hypothesis: an unforeseen consequence of Machado’s reaction to Eça’s novel was a return to the classical notion of \u003ci\u003eaemulatio\u003c\/i\u003e, which led Machado to develop a “poetics of emulation.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Michigan State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47050349773040,"sku":"9781611861815","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781611861815_p0.jpg?v=1763843028","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781611861815","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}