AN AESTHETICS OF VIRTUOSITY IN MEMÓRIAS PÓSTUMAS DE BRÁS CUBAS
Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas; Epistemology of the Novel; Aesthetics; Ethic; Virtue.
In this thesis I address the theme titled An Aesthetics of Virtuosity in Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas. I propose a reflection on the strategy adopted by the narrator of the novel Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis, when he presents the characters with attitudes that have two faces. One face turns towards the society in which they live, demonstrating apparently ethical and virtuous attitudes. The other face is exposed to the reader, through a deceased narrator, showing that the attitudes of these characters are not virtuous and ethical as they appear, but that they aim to achieve public glory. In this sense, the work reveals a game between the ethical and the aesthetic, as the narrative shows what the characters really are like, what are the motivations for their attitudes and what they demonstrate to people. The love of public glory and biblical intertextuality are aesthetic elements used in this game established by the narrator and cause this effect of contrast between what is ethical and what is merely aesthetic in the lives of these characters. So that, in this thesis I expose some reflections based on the reading of the books A Racionalidade Estética (1991), by Jayme Paviani, Verbetes da Epistemologia do Romance (2019), Volume I, and Verbetes da Epistemologia do Romance (2021), Volume II, whose authors are members of the Brazilian Research Group called Epistemologia do Romance (Epistemology of the Novel), Textos Básicos de Ética: De Platão a Foucault (2007), by Danilo Marcondes, O que é Estética? (1999), by Marc Jimenez, A Arte do Romance (2009), by Milan Kundera and Crítica da Razão Prática (2017), by Immanuel Kant.