Resumen de Delirium and "Divertissement": pascaline allegories in Machado de Assis

Paul Sneed

• This paper explores ehe relaCiono between Che worko of Machado de Ansio and Che seventeenlhcentnry French moralist Blaise Pascal jo key texto o which Machado allegorically symbotizes aspecto of Pascalo thonght, such es Che setfiohneso st Che core of homan acCiono nod Che homan condition jo Che absence of direreissement, or diversion. Theso allegoricat texto inclesde Machados shorl otories "A Igreja do Diabo" sod "Viver!" sod Che seventh chapter of hin seminal novel, Memórias Póstumas de Brcis Cubas, "O Detírio." Ihe papeo atoo seeks Co reexamine well-established interpretations of Che infloence of Pascal no Machado de Ansio aod lo problematizo Iheir asnomplinos thaI Machado was a posoimiol nr a skeptic.