The figuration of the black woman and the critique of naturalism in Machado de Assis: Arminda, Sabina and Mariana

Abstract

This article examines three texts by Machado de Assis featuring enslaved black (mixed-race) women: The short story “Father Against Mother” (Relics from an Old House, 1906); the narrative poem “Sabina” (Americanas, 1875); and the short story “Mariana” (Jornal das Famílias, 1871). It intends to show that, in these works, Machado subverts and unveils the social and literary stereotype of black women in general and mixed-race women in particular, as well as to claim that this subversion means a critique of naturalism that characterizes these stereotypical figures and makes up the fetishized conscience of the proprietary white man.