The devil's church:

The statute of evil in Machado de Assis

Abstract

The present article intends to study how evil, a topic that is so much discussed in literature and philosophy and which is also worked on in the short story “A Igreja do diabo”, by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. For this, we will start from a previous reflection about evil in his literary production, focusing, more specifically, on the problematic of evil in the work of the Brazilian writer and, later, we will analyze the mentioned tale. As a theoretical support, we will take into account the various studies that cover Machado's works from the interface between philosophy and literature, taking as reference, theorists such as Benedito Nunes (2012), Alfredo Bosi (2007), Roberto Schwartz (2000) and the discussions on the aspects and dimensions of evil, guilt and suffering based on texts by thinkers such as C.S. Lewis (2006), Paul Ricoeur (1998), Georges Bataille (1989), among others that will help us to better understand this theme and its implications in the work.