Writing Womanhood in the New Brazil: Machado’s Lição de Botânica

Abstract

This chapter offers an analysis of Machado’s representation of female characters through critical readings of his short stories and his understudied theatrical works, particularly Licao da Botânica(Botanical Lesson). More than mere props or foils for his more famous male characters, Machado’s fictional women possess their own narrative logic and their functions are quite distinct from those of his better-known male characters. Machado’s fictional women are also the mechanism by which he shows his reading public (made up largely of women) that a new, more socially conscious woman is part of what the new Brazil needs as it creates its post-emancipation and post-empire era.