O amor e a estética realista: uma análise de “Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas”, de Machado de Assis

Abstract

Considering that love has been a theme in different phases of literature, the present work seeks to reflect and analyze the theme of Love in its different representations in the novel Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, by Machado Assis. This research focuses on the aesthetic movement of Realism, based on the assumption that too much love, which was a recurring theme in the works of Romanticism, the literary school that precedes the one under analysis, suffered a strong moderation, and that bourgeois thought influenced this to happen. To do so, we sought to understand historical and social factors of the author's life, analysing sociocultural aspects of capitalist tendencies in the work; we reflected on how the rise of the bourgeoisie of the nineteenth century was given and we noticed the views that love has been receiving at different times in human history through literary writing, starting at first from Greece, a time when love was exalted and seen as something sovereign and divine. The research was conducted using a qualitative methodology of a basic, exploratory nature, involving a bibliographical survey as a technical instrument. Thus, the following theorists were used to support this research: Schwarz (2000) Souza (2018), Bosi (2000), Candido (1995), Ferreira (2012), Brait (2004).