A voluptuosidade do nada: o niilismo na prosa de Machado de Assis

Abstract

Machado de Assis on nihilism remained an 'ndiscussed' subject. The main purpose of this thesis is to argue that nihilism is a 'eitmotif' of Machado's prose, presented as a perspective to be mocked. The fundamental claims of the present thesis are: Machado de Assis' prose, with a playful pen, combines philosophy and literature in such a way that philosophical content and literary form become inseparable; nihilism is the cultural dominant in the West in the nineteenth century; Machado de Assis had an acute awareness of the complex and multifaceted nature of the presence of nihilism in his time