O realismo do fantástico: teoria geral e obras exemplares

Abstract

This thesis seeks to introduce the theme of the literary fantastic from the perspective of historical and dialectical materialism. It begins with a discussion of some aspects that make up the structure of capitalist reality according to Karl Marx, such as the issue of alienation and “commodity fetishism” and the relationship between phenomenon and essence. Afterwards, it exposes the fundamentals of György Lukács' aesthetic method, indicating passages and criteria that allow for the foundation of a general theory of fantastic literature from the perspective of critical realism. In this scope, it questions the principles of the most widespread theories about fantastic literature, such as Todorov's, and also the general notions about the so-called “fantastical realism” (or magical) Hispanic-American. After such theoretical discussions, we proceed to the most sustained efforts of literary criticism, with a topic on One Hundred Years of Solitude, another on Jorge Luis Borges and another on José Saramago. In the second part of the thesis, a historiography of fantastic literature in Brazil is suggested through analysis, in chronological order, of some of the most relevant periods and works in this field, namely: the origins of the fantastic in romanticism; Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas and the fantastic tales of Machado de Assis; the naturalistic interregnum; the rhapsody Macunaíma, by Mário de Andrade; some short stories by Guimarães Rosa and the The Devil to Pay in the Backlands; the complete work of Murilo Rubião; stories by J. J. Veiga; the novel The Colonel and the Werewolf by José Cândido de Carvalho; Jorge Amado and Ariano Suassuna’s novels; Incident in Antares by Érico Veríssimo; the general question of postmodernism; books by Roberto Drummond and Ignácio de Loyola Brandão; and, finally, Moacyr Scliar’s The Centaur in the Garden, besides a conclusion and an afterword about the author of the thesis.