Conservantismo e ousadia crítica: literatura e política em Os demônios, de Dostoiévski, e Esaú e Jacó, de Machado de Assis

Abstract

This master thesis undertakes an analysis of two novels by authors inserted in different literary fields, although similar as the broader political issues in their respective countries: Machado de Assis’s Esau and Jacob, and Dostoevsky’s The Demons. The first discusses and questions the change of political regime in Brazil from monarchy to republic, showing how the intellectual environment was affected by the political framework. The second, in turn, is critical to sudden changes then carried out by the aristocracy of Russia, in addition to fighting the modernizing wave arising in Western Europe. In The Demons the theme of the novel lies with the revolutionary movements of socialist bias, and that bulge, also deals with issues related to nihilism and the dangers of a collapse of the Russian tradition. The intellectual environment is also themed, including implicit and direct attacks to certain authors.