Os limites do sobrenatural: uma leitura do fantástico em Josué Guimarães

Abstract

The present dissertation analyzes the short stories A visita, Uma noite de chuva and A travessia by the writer Josué Guimarães, based on the theoretical teachings of Tzvetan Todorov and Felipe Furtado. Our intention is to specify the characteristics of the fantastic, the strange and the wonderful in each story. We begin with a theoretical discussion in which we put these two authors in dialogue, aiming to emphasize their similarities and differences. Felipe Furtado, in his book A construção do fantastico na narrativa (1980), criticizes the definitions of Todorov s views presented in the book Introdução a literatura fantástica (1992). He argues that, by attributing the primacy of the definition of fantastic, strange and wonderful to the reader, Todorov is actually privileging a second element and not the most important one the ambiguity. Furtado concentrates his definition of fantastic, strange and wonderful on the ambiguity that arises from the stories through the presence of the supernatural element. His definition begins with the mutual reminding of the text elements that must turn themselves to the fantastic, in case the ambiguity remains; or to the strange, in case the superiority from the reality prevails; or still the wonderful, if the elements contribute to the maintenance of an arbitrary reality. With both authors in dialogue, we study the short stories mentioned, intending to explicit and clear the ways and characteristics of the supernatural in the narratives that compose the corpus of the present research and, by doing so, emphasizing the characteristics of each discourse