Nihilism and Desire in "The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas": Literature and Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Literature and psychoanalysis are put into dialogue in order to perform an innovative reading of Machado de Assis’s The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, which is considered one of his masterpieces, alongside Quincas Borba and Dom Casmurro. The psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan is used as a theoretical reference.