The article traces the reception of Machado de Assis’ work in Brazil and abroad. It puts into question the current notion of "universality", focusing on the aesthetical elements of the local particularities present on Machado’s narrative form. Taking the short text "O punhal de Martinha" as a guideline, it demonstrates the complex and tense dialectics between local and universal suggested in his work.
Machado de Assis; Brazilian literature; literature and society