SOCIO-LEGAL ANALYSIS, BASED ON LITERARY CRITICISM, OF THE SHORT STORY “SUJE-SE GORDO!”, BY MACHADO DE ASSIS

Abstract

This text aims to conduct a socio-legal study of the short story "Surta-se Gordo" (It Gets Dirty), featured in the collection "Relíquias de Casa Velha" (Old House Relics), by Machado de Assis. In this study, I analyze the limits of modernity on the periphery of capitalism, with an emphasis on legal issues. For this study, I will use the work of literary critic Roberto Schwarz as a reference. The critic asserts that, when modern ideas are incorporated into Brazilian reality, they are "out of place," undergoing a kind of torsion. According to the author, it is the "common observation, almost a feeling, that in Brazil ideas were off-center, in relation to their European usage," which means recognizing that they did not fulfill the same role here as in Europe, creating a kind of disconcert. The disconcert was not in the adoption of the ideas, as it might seem, but in their concomitant existence with the still strongly preserved colonial practices.