“BUT THEN, WHAT WOULD CRITICISM BE?” BALZAC READS STENDHAL, MACHADO READS EÇA
In 1840, Balzac wrote an article about Stendhal’s La Chartreuse de Parme. Though praising the book’s qualities, in the final paragraphs Balzac is very critical of the book, in a way that leads us to infer that what he criticizes in La Chartreuse de Parme is that it is not the novel he would have wri...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra
2016-03-01
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| Series: | Revista de Estudos Literários |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://impactum-journals.uc.pt/rel/article/view/4885 |
| _version_ | 1797815318685417472 |
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| author | Marta de Senna |
| author_facet | Marta de Senna |
| author_sort | Marta de Senna |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In 1840, Balzac wrote an article about Stendhal’s La Chartreuse de Parme. Though praising the book’s qualities, in the final paragraphs Balzac is very critical of the book, in a way that leads us to infer that what he criticizes in La Chartreuse de Parme is that it is not the novel he would have written himself. In 1878, Machado de Assis wrote two articles about O primo Basílio, then recently published by Eça de Queirós. Identifying affinities between Eça and Balzac and between Machado and Stendhal, this paper claims that the Brazilian criticism of the Portuguese novel is based on these affinities. In other words, Machado’s condemnation of Eça’s submissiveness to Realism/Naturalism originates in his own need to create characters as “moral persons”, whose actions are triggered by their innermost motives. Among such motives stands out the prevalence of the will over the intellect, of personal interest over the influence of circumstances, which is more akin to the heroes of Stendhal than to Balzac’s characters, a model Eça admittedly tried to emulate in the beginning of his career as a novelist.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T08:20:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9b844ca6af8e466e9f13903bdbe56c70 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2182-1526 2183-847X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T08:20:53Z |
| publishDate | 2016-03-01 |
| publisher | Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Revista de Estudos Literários |
| spelling | doaj.art-9b844ca6af8e466e9f13903bdbe56c702023-05-31T09:54:13ZengImprensa da Universidade de CoimbraRevista de Estudos Literários2182-15262183-847X2016-03-01610.14195/2183-847X_6_6“BUT THEN, WHAT WOULD CRITICISM BE?” BALZAC READS STENDHAL, MACHADO READS EÇAMarta de SennaIn 1840, Balzac wrote an article about Stendhal’s La Chartreuse de Parme. Though praising the book’s qualities, in the final paragraphs Balzac is very critical of the book, in a way that leads us to infer that what he criticizes in La Chartreuse de Parme is that it is not the novel he would have written himself. In 1878, Machado de Assis wrote two articles about O primo Basílio, then recently published by Eça de Queirós. Identifying affinities between Eça and Balzac and between Machado and Stendhal, this paper claims that the Brazilian criticism of the Portuguese novel is based on these affinities. In other words, Machado’s condemnation of Eça’s submissiveness to Realism/Naturalism originates in his own need to create characters as “moral persons”, whose actions are triggered by their innermost motives. Among such motives stands out the prevalence of the will over the intellect, of personal interest over the influence of circumstances, which is more akin to the heroes of Stendhal than to Balzac’s characters, a model Eça admittedly tried to emulate in the beginning of his career as a novelist. https://impactum-journals.uc.pt/rel/article/view/4885Machado de AssisEça de QueirósBalzacStendhalrealism-naturalism |
| spellingShingle | Marta de Senna “BUT THEN, WHAT WOULD CRITICISM BE?” BALZAC READS STENDHAL, MACHADO READS EÇA Revista de Estudos Literários Machado de Assis Eça de Queirós Balzac Stendhal realism-naturalism |
| title | “BUT THEN, WHAT WOULD CRITICISM BE?” BALZAC READS STENDHAL, MACHADO READS EÇA |
| title_full | “BUT THEN, WHAT WOULD CRITICISM BE?” BALZAC READS STENDHAL, MACHADO READS EÇA |
| title_fullStr | “BUT THEN, WHAT WOULD CRITICISM BE?” BALZAC READS STENDHAL, MACHADO READS EÇA |
| title_full_unstemmed | “BUT THEN, WHAT WOULD CRITICISM BE?” BALZAC READS STENDHAL, MACHADO READS EÇA |
| title_short | “BUT THEN, WHAT WOULD CRITICISM BE?” BALZAC READS STENDHAL, MACHADO READS EÇA |
| title_sort | but then what would criticism be balzac reads stendhal machado reads eca |
| topic | Machado de Assis Eça de Queirós Balzac Stendhal realism-naturalism |
| url | https://impactum-journals.uc.pt/rel/article/view/4885 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT martadesenna butthenwhatwouldcriticismbebalzacreadsstendhalmachadoreadseca |