Mestres na periferia do realismo

Despite their renown for different aesthetic styles, this article argues that Machado de Assis and Eça de Queirós explored similar, classical representations of male friendship to problematize dominant understandings of relationships in patriarchal- capitalist society, and that such representations underpin their mutual development of confused and dubious male narrators in their later novels. In addition, it argues that the intertwined degradation of love and truth in their work reflects the precarious position of Portugal and Brazil at the end of the nineteenth century, at the periphery of British imperialism, European Realism and the burgeoning world of commerce and consumption. Beginning with O primo Basílio and considering in turn Quincas Borba, A relíquia and Dom Casmurro, the article demonstrates how early concerns about the inauthenticity of bourgeois marriage and friendship—whereby economic interests thwart the pursuit of true love—culminate in the singular novels of the 1880s and 90s, in which narrators struggle to recognize and articulate their feelings for their male peers. The argument thus draws links between characterization, literary form and social context, whilst proposing a greater degree of influence between the two authors than is generally acknowledged, amounting to a transatlantic criticism of the dominant ideology in the west at the time.