The article develops a structural dialogue between the short stories "The figure in the carpet" (1896), by Henry James, and "Theory of medallion" (1891), by Machado de Assis, in order to demonstrate how the movement of form establishes, in both narratives, polysemic meanings which enable fickle and contradictory contents.
Formal puzzle; contradiction; fickle content; irony; polysemy; Machado de Assis; Henry James