This article starts from the theoretical distinction between two possibilities of literary analysis, one that keeps the focus on the historical moment in which the text was written, tying it to its historical context; the other from the point of view of the reception, a mode of interpretation that accepts the intertwinement of texts and their further modification by one another, regardless of which was written first. Thereby, this is a comparative analysis of "O delírio", from Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas, by Machado de Assis, and the Apocalypse by John of Patmos. The reading of Machado's text allows a rereading of the biblical text and relativizes its supposed truth, just as Patmos's text allows us to reread "O delírio" as one that could reach the truth.
Machado de Assis; Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas; Apocalypse; reception