Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis

In the work of Machado de Assis, this concept of the norm versus difference is particularly present in several key texts as articulated through the representation of mental illness (in 'O Alienista' and Quincas Borba) and physical disability (the character of Eugênia in Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, the focus of this article). Assumptions about the universality of the norm and that of the 'ideal,' a concept that dates back to the seventeenth century, stem from the mythical imaginary of a divine body that represents ultimate beauty, godliness and the sublime, in contrast to all forms of difference or abnormality such as deformity, the grotesque, uncleanliness, and disease. Within this hegemony of normalcy, particularly over the past few decades, disability studies have engaged the construction of disability and the concept of the normal body as central to understanding the representation of otherness in our society and in the literature that engages with these themes. Unlike other editions, it also preserves Machado's original chapter breaks-each of the novel's 160 short chapters begins on a new page-and includes excerpts from previous versions of the novel never before published in English.Living in a world of norms, the endeavor to be the same as those around us may be perceived as a core impetus that fuels societal behavior and that leaves no aspect of contemporary life untouched. This new English translation is the first to include extensive notes providing crucial historical and cultural context. Wildly imaginative, wickedly witty, and ahead of its time, the novel has been compared to the work of everyone from Cervantes to Sterne to Joyce to Nabokov to Borges to Calvino, and has influenced generations of writers around the world. He dedicates it to the worms gnawing at his corpse and tells of his failed romances and halfhearted political ambitions, serves up harebrained philosophies, and complains with gusto from the depths of his grave. In his masterpiece, the 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (translated also as Epitaph of a Small Winner), the ghost of a decadent and disagreeable aristocrat decides to write his memoir. The mixed-race grandson of ex-slaves, Machado de Assis is not only Brazil's most celebrated writer but also a writer of world stature, who has been championed by the likes of Philip Roth, Susan Sontag, Allen Ginsberg, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie.

Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis