Menocchio, Machado and Maranhao: Ginzburg, history and literature in Brazil

The article analyses the connections between the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg's work, especially in The cheese and the worms (translated to Portuguese in 1987), and a new perspective in Brazilian historiography arise between the late 1980's and 2000's. Departing from the debates on the 1st International Seminary on Amazonian History (with the main subject "History and Literature), held in Belem (Brazil) in 2004, the article discusses the parallels among the expectations and probabilities of microstoria (micro-history) and the contemporary approaches on Brazilian historiography and literary criticism. This interpretation is framed by the perspectives of both Sidney Chalhoub and Benedito Nunes, on the books of Machado de Assis (1839-1908) and Haroldo Maranhao (1927-2004), comparing them with Ginzburg's article on Stendhal (17731842)'s work.