SOURCE: "An Artist's Identity versus the Social Role of the Writer: The Case for Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis," in CLA Journal, Vol. XXVII, No. 2, December, 1983, pp. 187-96.

In the following essay, Nunes defends Machado against attacks that he was unsympathetic to blacks in Brazil based on his apparant reticence on the issue of slavery. The critic cites examples from Machado's fiction that demonstrate the writer's "anti-slavery" position.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, 1839-1908, was the greatest Brazilian writer of his time and perhaps of all time. Because he wrote in Portuguese, his works have not received the universal acclamation they merit, but in the past twenty years or so, most of his major novels have been translated into English—Memórias Postumas de Bras Cubas (Epitaph for a Small Winner), Quincas Borba (Dog or Philosopher?), Dom Casmurro, Esau e Jaco (Esau and Jacob), and Memorial de Aires...