AS FACES INSÓLITAS DA IARA

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the character Iara in the short story "A Iara do Rio Santana", in the book "Visagens, Assombrações e Encantamentos da Amazônia" (2019), by Walcyr Monteiro (1940-2019). Iara is a legend that is part of Brazilian folklore; therefore, we will study it from the gothic, fictional unusual, and the fantastic as a mode perspective. In addition, we seek support from the studies of Flávio Garcia (2012), who describes the uncommon as a fictional category common to several literary genres. For Marisa Gama-Khalil (2019) apud Furtado (2011), the fantastic is a mode that aggregates heterogeneous texts and genres through a common aspect: the supernatural, integrating the fairy tale, the gothic, the marvelous, the strange, science fiction, and other modalities.  To complement our theoretical basis in the ideas of Noël Carroll will be addressed, especially in this work "The philosophy of horror" (1990). We will also contemplate the works "Folk-lore Brésilien" (1889), by Frederico José de Santa-Anna Nery and "Lendas Brasileiras" (2015) and "Geografia dos Mitos Brasileiros" (2012), by Câmara Cascudo. In this way, we intend to explore the plurality that surrounds the narratives of this character through the Gothic bias. Iara is an unusual being that inhabits the Amazon rivers, carrying a scary curse: her mesmerizing song and deadly beauty transform her into a reaper of men, luring them to the bottom of the waters.