ABSTRACT
Responding to the invitation implicit in the title "A famous man" ["Um homem célebre"], Machado de Assis' short story is discussed in light of the problem of the historicity of celebrity. Far from having always existed or being a very recent phenomenon, the celebrity - as demonstrated by Antoine Lilti - is a new form of renown, brought about in the second half of the eighteenth century, in a context of crisis of aristocratic societies, and of opening of a public space. Such perspective leads to associate the story of conductor Pestana to "John Doe" ["Fulano"] - a narrative about an authentic expert in the art of self-promotion, adept of a true "politics of proper name" - rather than to the author's other short stories with music-related themes. By analyzing the two short stories, and comparing Pestana and John Doe to some of Machado's characters obsessed with glory - Brás Cubas, Janjão's father ("Medallion Theory"), and Santos (Esau and Jacob) - we seek to demonstrate the existence of a reflection on the historicity of renown in Machado's writing.
Keywords:
Short stories; Brazilian literature; Renown; Glory and Celebrity; Machado de Assis.