THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THEMES IN MACHADIAN FIRST POETIC BOOK, CRISÁLIDAS

Abstract

This paper aims to present the political and social themes present in Machadian first poetic work, Crisálidas (1864). The poems that are part of this work and that best represent these themes are: “Os arlequins” (1864), “Epitáfio do México” (1862) and “Polônia” (1862), for this reason, these were the poems selected to be analyzed in order to provide a basis for the research and demonstrate through poetic analysis, how they are rooted in political and social issues. The study is anchored in literature reviews about Machado’s poetic work and in the theoretical perspectives of Candido (2017), Machado (2003), and Massa (2009). Machado de Assis was a writer who traversed practically all literary genres, starting with poetry, passing through the short story, novel, the chronicle, and even literary criticism. From the readings of the poems it became evident that more than a century after his death, his work is still impressive for being so current, because the writer was a master in ironically and critically portraying 19th century Brazilian society, raising and anticipating social and political issues that are still so present and current in our days. Machado de Assis did this in a spectacular way in his novels, especially in the second phase, but he already anticipated the ills, the political and social problems of 19th century Brazilian society, since his first poetic books, and this is very present in the three poems cited, which this article intends to analyze by presenting representative aspects of this poetic phase of machadian.