Studing Machado from the Queirosian perspective of Guerra da Cal: in search of a needed canonized project

Abstract

Since the end of the 1950´s, several Brazilian sectors had asked Ernesto Guerra da Cal to devote Machado de Assis a similar study to that devoted to Eça de Queirós. Such a study aimed at promoting and projecting the former author in the same way as, and to the same extent that both the work and the figure of Eça de Queirós had been promoted by da Cal. Despite the efforts and the different contributions and testimonies which raised the recognition of the contribution of the Brazilin writer, the project never materialized. In the end, the original request contributed towards a two-way process of canonicity: one that has both warranted Eça de Queirós a place in the center of Portuguese literature and da Cal a place in the center of Portuguese literary studies. It has also contributed to show the importance of certain symbolic and identity projections within social spaces and cultural areas, as is the case of the Brazilian writer.