Abstract This essay considers Prof. Wasserman as a practitioner of the field known, variously, as inter-American literary study, hemispheric literature, and the literature of the Americas. It also argues that she is a leader in this field because of her discerning critical observations but also because she proves the singular importance of Brazilian letters in this comparatively American perspective. My study especially celebrates her work on two Brazilian authors: José de Alencar and Mário de Andrade. Wasserman makes clear how these two writers make major contributions to our better understanding of nineteenth and twentieth-century literature in the Americas.

RESUMO O comparatismo e as literaturas brasileira e hispano-americanas. O papel da universidade norte-americana na difusão das literaturas latino-americanas. Caminhos da produção brasileira e hispano-americana mais recentes. Circulação da literatura brasileira na América do Norte. Escritores afro-descendentes e a cultura norte-americana.

ABSTRACT Comparatism and Brazilian and Hispanic-American literatures. The role of the North American University in the propagation of Latin American literatures. Trends of the recent Brazilian and Hispanic-American literary production. Circulation of Brazilian literature in North America. Afro-descendant writers and American culture.

Resumo Este ensaio discute a recepção de Machado de Assis nos Estados Unidos. Enfocando no conto "A Teoria do Medalhão" (1881), argumento que os "medalhões" verdadeiros ficam na academia norte-americana, aqueles leitores e críticos que vão ter dificuldade em reconhecer o brilho e a originalidade do mestre brasileiro.

Abstract This essay discusses the reception of Machado de Assis in the United States. Focusing on the 1881 short story, "A Teoria do Medalhão", I argue that the real "medalhões" are in the North American academy, those readers and critics who, I predict, are going to have trouble appreciating the brilliance and originality of the Brazilian master.

Na literatura, a questão da recepção é extremamente complexa e, ao mesmo tempo, essencial, sobretudo se quisermos compreender melhor o impacto que tem em outra uma cultura literária pouco conhecida. Neste artigo, estudo a recepção de Machado de Assis nos Estados Unidos durante os anos 1950, quando três de seus romances - Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas, Dom Casmurro e Quincas Borba - apareceram pela primeira vez em tradução para o inglês. Também considero a recepção de Machado nos anos 1960, período do chamado "boom", quando o autor brasileiro, apesar de ter sido muito admirado pelo crítico e escritor norte-americano John Barth, não recebeu a aclamação geral que merecia.

This article examines the reception afforded Machado de Assis in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, the years when Machado was first translated into English and available for reading in the United States and the years of the "Boom" period when he and his texts could have been (but were not) celebrated as part of the generally positive reception given to what was then being called "Latin American" (meaning Spanish American) literature in the United States. The article summarizes how reviewers interpreted Machado's three great novels as they appeared in their generally good English translations (Epitaph of a Small Winner, Dom Casmurro, and Philosopher or Dog?), and how they may have been misinterpreted, by the public and by the critical establishment. The essay also speculates about what might have happened if Machado had been read in the context of some of the great social transformations of the 1950s and 1960s, including questions of race and race relations, gender, class, and economic justice. The article concludes by considering whether the recognition of Brazilian literature in the United States of today would have been greatly enhanced if Machado had received a more emphatically positive reception during the 1950s and 1960s.