Abstract
- Machado de Assis and Emília Bandeira de Melo, best known as Carmen Dolores, enjoyed each other’s friendly acquaintance. In the column “A Semana” of the prestigious newspaper O País, Bandeira de Melo mentioned their peculiar comradeship in her obituary for the author’s passing. This essay demonstrates the memorial strategies of the writers - which transpires in Carmen Dolores’ recollection - parallel to the performance of the writer-characters in the literary field through the (auto-) biographical focus of the narratives Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas and Gradações. The differences found in the memorial process of each character, Brás Cubas and Carmen, reflect vestiges of the 'authorial authority' of Machado and Bandeira de Melo in the formation and political configuration of the cultural field contemporary to both. Keywords: Carmen Dolores. Machado de Assis. Memorial literature. Autobiography.