Abstract
This essay intends to draw a comparison between "O Alienista," a short story by Machado de Assis that belongs to the collection, Papéis avulsos (1882), and Guimarães Rosa’s short story "Darandina," published in Primeiras estórias (1962). Both stories discuss the relationship between power and psychiatric discourse, albeit in decisively different fashions. It is suggested that Guimarães Rosa might be making explicit references to Machado de Assis’s story, as he had already done in his homonymous response to "O espelho," also by Machado. This study, inspired by Freudian psychoanalysis and the work of Michel Foucault, notably Madness and Civilization (1961), will point out the affinities and differences between the two narratives while focusing on the strategies adopted by reason for keeping madness silent.
Machado de Assis; Guimarães Rosa; madness; reason