AS INCOERENTES PERSONAGENS INSÓLITAS NAS NARRATIVAS CURTAS DE MIA COUTO: AS ESTRATÉGIAS DE CONSTRUÇÃO NARRATIVA E OS NOVOS DISCURSOS FANTÁSTICOS

Abstract

The contemporary studies of the fantastic literature have shifted from Todorov’s perspective of ambiguity, doubt or hesitation that lasted even beyond a story’s end to the manifestation of the fictional uncommon- which can be identified either as a category, as genre and also as an effect – that is understood as a distinctive and essential element. According to this theoretical perspective, the fictional uncommon emerges within narratives from text construction strategies, implying incoherent features in the configuration of one or more basic narrative categories – characters, time, action, space – that are not presented according to the expectations of the realist-naturalist paradigm connected to a referential representation of the external reality. It is claimed that the category of character is the most important one when it comes to the development of the story and, therefore, its configuration of an uncommon element, specifically in the narratives that include an either direct or indirect reference of the uncommon characteristic is the focus of this paper. This fictional phenomenon is present in a relevant number of Mozambican writer Mia Couto’s short narratives, among which “O não desaparecimento de Maria Sombrinha”, the first short story of his Contos de nascer da terra, is analyzed here.