Abstract
This article analyzes Tristram Shandy (1759-1767), by Laurence Sterne, and The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (1881), by Machado de Assis, considering the mirroring they present of the reader as a character who updates the sparks of meaning in that space of the outside language, based on the concept of Maurice Blanchot. The narrators Brás Cubas and Tristram Shandy refrain from giving full descriptions of events and characters so as not to tarnish the literary experience of their readers. The perspective of both is at the heart of what configures the literary experience: it is an experience that takes place in the space outside the word. Reading literature implies constantly lifting your eyes from the pages and diving into other dimensions of meanings.
Keywords:
Tristram Shandy; The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas; literary reading; experience of the outside