Aspects of deliberative discourse in the short story “Teoria do medalhão”, yy Machado de Assis, in connection with the Bible

Abstract

Machado de Assis often quoted the Bible. He was also skilled at using rhetorical resources. The result is the production of a subtle and persuasive fictional work. Deliberative discourse is used in the Bible in what is conventionally called paraenesis (prescription of correct behavior), which also adheres to the rich tradition of biblical wisdom, whose precepts seek adjustment to social order, in search of happiness. Berger (1998) gives an exhaustive description of the parenetic formulations of New Testament texts, based on the three types of discourses of the Aristotelian model. The importance of the deliberative genre can be noted in Machado de Assis' "Teoria do medalhão", in which parent-child instruction, in a rite of passage, makes use of the parenetic framework, with dimensions of social criticism, in a new historical and literary context. The scenario changed; the deliberative discourse remained, adapted; hence the strength and universality of Rhetoric, this indispensable mediator of human interactions.