Abstract
This chapter proposes a comparison between two novels by Joseph Conrad and Machado de Assis. It explores an innovative narrative technique which is usually attributed to Joseph Conrad. It is almost certain that Machado de Assis did not read nor know about the existence of Joseph Conrad, although the first book edition of Lord Jim was published only a year (1900) after Dom Casmurro first appeared in Brazil. Nevertheless, the author finds an unexpected similarity between the two novels, in the foundation of the “modern elegiac romance, a category of narrative form proposed by the critic Keneth A. Bruffee. It is a romance, because the hero engages in a sort of quest, as in the chivalric romance. It is elegiac, because its narrators tell the story of a deceased hero, as in pastoral elegy. It is modern, because it emerges at the beginning of the 20th century and is an attempt to move away from a realistic paradigm. After an examination of the concept of elegiac romance and its three thematic elements, in accordance with the theoretical approach of Bruffee, the author examines Dom Casmurro from a similar perspective, and argues that Machado de Assis, like Conrad, can be regarded as renewing an old literary tradition. This reading throws new light on the finest novel by Machado de Assis (and possibly the greatest Brazilian novel). This is carried out not only by finding evidence of proving its elegiac character, but, as a result of the approach adopted, provides a new interpretation of the interaction between the narrator of Dom Casmurro and its heroine Capitu, who is already dead when he sets out to tell the interwoven story of their lives.