{"product_id":"9781628952407","title":"Machado de Assis: Toward a Poetics of Emulation","description":"This 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.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e At 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\u003e and 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.”","brand":"Michigan State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47151891906800,"sku":"9781628952407","price":23.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781628952407_p0.jpg?v=1763873628","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781628952407","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}