A relação entre o fantástico e insanidade no conto O Coração Denunciador, de Edgar Allan Poe

Abstract

This study consists of a bibliographic study that aims to investigate the presence of the fantastic and the concept of insanity present in the short-story the tell-tale heart (1843), by Edgar Allan Poe, showing some developments of these concepts in the narrative of the North American author. According to Gabriel (2017) and Baudelaire (2012), it is possible to perceive that madness and insanity are themes that permeate Poe's literary production and that are present in the story to be analyzed in this study. To approach the story, we will resort to the category of the fantastic, developed by Todorov (1981), in order to point out which way the theme of insanity, present in the analyzed story, relates to the elements of fantastic literature, and how such elements provide subsidies for the construction of a narrative that is structured based on the reader's hesitation, according to a character/narrator who calls into question his unusual report, due to his remarkable state of mental disturbance. Thus, we hope that the concepts here will be able to contribute as key elements for reading and interpreting Poe's work.