Misplaced Ideas: the Contradiction of Science in Machado de Assis

Viviane's project will historicize and analyse the scientific discourse in the novels and short stories of the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. Her hypothesis is that the self-professed liberal and independent scientific discourse in Brazil in the nineteenth century is deconstructed by the writer in order to reveal its recondite social tensions, such as class struggle and gender and racial inequalities. Her theoretical perspective will update Roberto Schwarz’s socio-historical reading of the writer, also applying Fredric Jameson’s formalist interpretation of the Realist novel and Michel Foucault’s theories of biopower. Such a socio-literary analysis can contribute to ongoing parallel scholarly enquiries into how the Portuguese Empire used medical discoveries to rule and control the general population.