“FRANJAS DE ALGODÃO EM MANTOS DE VELUDO” - THE IDEAS, AND THE DEVIL, OUTSIDE THE PLACE IN A TALE OF MACHADO DE ASSIS

Abstract

The story of “A igreja do diabo”, by Machado de Assis, is analyzed in the light of the thinking developed by Roberto Schwarz in his famous article “As ideias for a do lugar” (2005). What we want to discuss is how the Machadian text reflects not only on religious aspects or on the human being’s desire to be detached from religious norms, but also how he literally represents the Brazilian social structure of the time, dressed in “velvet cloaks with fringes of cotton”, that is, clothed with European liberal ideology, but based on the backwardness of the slave regime and the regime of favor.