Private Affairs, Public Office: Reading the Body of Virgília in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas

Abstract

As Machado de Assis’s The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (1881) reflects on the life of a single man, two dominant forces emerge within the narrative: Brás Cubas’s desire for a family and his quest for political office.  These parallel efforts coincide in the form of the political wife, the woman who enables both domestic and public glory. Using the encounter of public and private spaces as a point of departure, this essay considers female forms as circumscribed by their private and public duties. Evaluating Virgília and Marcela, we explore the significance of materiality and promiscuity in the reading of women’s bodies within the text.