The self writing in Dyonélio Machado's Deuses Econômicos

Abstract

Seeking to contribute to a horizon of critical reconfiguration of Dyonélio Machado's historiography, this article seeks to find in the work Deuses Econômicos (1976) the concern of the characters with the image of itself conveyed in their own correspondence. Through a detailed analysis of the role played by letters in the novel, and the practice that Michel Foucault (1992) called self-writing, one can find indicative elements about how Dyonélio Machado considered his own work of building a literary posterity. It is worth noting that some of the main authors cited by Foucault in his text (such as Seneca) appear cited in Deuses Econômicos, which indicates the relevance of establishing this relationship. We thus return to this text that took ten years of research into classical Antiquity by Dyonélio Machado, suggesting his reflective originality regarding the practices of creating an image of oneself. This critical analysis could offer support for a historiographical investigation into the writer, which differs from conceptions that consider his literary production as a mere unreflective expression of his traumatic memories.