THE "DAY DELIRIUM" OF MACHADO DE ASSIS AND THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE ABOLITION

Abstract The text addresses Machado de Assis’s participation in the Abolition celebrations – mass, courtship, and poetry – as he was among those who created a memory for the great feat of May 13: the end of slavery. Although the reports about Abolition always discuss a Machadian "delirium," they do not always address the different roles this literary figure played in the process, as he had been a civil servant since 1873, where he worked for the freedom of slaves, and in 1888, as an interpreter of abolition through chronicles and poetry. The festivals of abolition would be in the memory of this writer who in the following years used this "day of delirium" to comment on his Republican gift and the future of the Abolition celebrations.