O medo en abîme : o fantástico à luz do realismo no conto "Sem Olhos" de Machado de Assis

Fábio Waki

doi:10.5817/ERB2019-2-3

Fear in abîme : the fantastic in the light of realism in Machado de Assis's short story "Sem Olhos"

Vol.40,No.2(2019)

Fábio Waki

https://doi.org/10.5817/ERB2019-2-3

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/141589

PDF (Portuguese)

Abstract

This article examines Machado de Assis's short story "Sem Olhos" (1876–77) to discuss how he explores a narrative structure frequently found in horror narratives of the European 19th century as mediation for a criticism of the social relations that characterize the lower aristocracies and bourgeoisies typically represented in his realist aesthetics. From an impressionistic perspective that takes the Freudian uncanny as an affective and aesthetic parameter – without, however, being restricted to it –, this discussion seeks to show how the writer revises a credibility principle common to many of these stories to create some sort of "fear en abîme": the main character's narrative structures a fear of the supernatural, but, instead of being an end in itself, this fear incites in the other characters a second fear, a natural fear, related to the potential acts of violence that coordinate their lives in society.

Keywords:
Brazilian literature; fantastic literature; horror literature; 19th century; uncanny

Pages:
25–39

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