Machado de Assis wrote the 246 chronicles of the series "A Semana" between 1892 and 1897. By then, he had already gone through many disappointments: Brazilian drama did not yield good results in the model of the French realistic theatre; literature had not become a form of social intervention; and politics had become synonymous with moral crisis. Machado then directed his attention to the chronicle, which would translate his thoughts about our urban life rituals. Intrigued by cultural settings that eluded him, he decided to seek the psychosocial features of the Brazilian people. This article presents some results of Machado de Assis's effort of to understand Brazilianness.
chronicle; Brazilianness; cultural criticism