Socialist allegorical-fantasist literature

Abstract

Historiography has paid little attention to the literature produced by working-class intellectuals, either linked to socialist or to anarchist groups. This is the case of Ernesto da Silva (1868-193), a typographer, with a broad doctrinal and literary work. He became known after the impact of one of his plays, O Capital (Capital), but this socialist militant is also the author of a set of short stories, dramatic and theatrical texts published between 1893 and 1903. From our point of view, some of these short stories and dramas can be framed within the “fantastic genre.” In this article we intend to describe the differential features of what we call “fantastic socialist literature” analyzing the plots, characters, spaces and environments. Our objective is threefold: on the one hand, to value this literature, little-known in historiography; on the other hand, to claim its literary quality, since it was often disregarded for its purpose of doctrinal diffusion; finally, to establish the place of this new genre within the so-called fantastic literature.