ON SOCIAL VOICES IN UM CASO DE BURRO, BY MACHADO DE ASSIS

DISCOURSE (AND) POLEMICS

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the polemics of voices that are forged in the chronicle Um caso de burro, by Machado de Assis. Informed by the dialogical discourse theory, I try and show the writer’s ingenuity in bringing the donkey’s voice to the narrative, making it possible for the discursive emergence of a veiled polemics, which dialogizes with social problems that were not only present in Machado’s time, but also contemporarily. Thus, my objective is to discuss the construct of polemics developed by Bakhtin and Circle, bringing the contents tensioned in the chronicle as in-depth analytical axis, such as: i) the description of space and time in the chronicle; ii) the axiological posture of the narrator in regards of the donkey’s physical and psychological characteristics, which makes voice polemics emerge; iii) the focusing of social criticism, in bivocal speech, when it comes to the scavenge of the donkey’s consciousness. The analysis opens doors for the comprehension of voice’s interweaving movement in Machado de Assis’ chronicle, which sheds light on the most delicate problems of a stratified society still marked by the exploitation of human labor, as well as by the neglecting of laborer’s basic needs.