Learning How to Read, Learning How to Fall: Literacy and Transgression in Henry James’s “The Pupil” and Machado de Assis’s “Missa do Galo”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17851/2317-2096.27.1.249-270Keywords:
Henry James, learning, Machado de Assis, morality, readingAbstract
At a stage when the literary careers of Henry James and Machado de Assis were consolidating in terms of public appraisal, they published two short narratives: “The pupil” (1891) and “Missa do galo” (1894), that focused on the relationship between a young man and an older character, a tutelary figure of physical and intellectual attraction. By tackling questions of narration and interpretation, this comparative reading aims to identify the major plot lines drawn around that relationship and realize in which ways it harks back to both authors’ critical reflection on the notion of learning, on the effects of reading, and on the relevance of morality and social standards. It also focuses on how that relationship connects to the literary treatment given to these different aspects in their relational sphere. To this end, the role of death and past in literary creation, as well as of memory and retrospect, is given particular attention, enabling us to understand how the formulation of evil is deeply connected for these characters to the corruption of the family unit.
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