A descrição do mistério e do sobrenatural em "Drácula", de Bram Stoker: uma análise da epistolaridade

Abstract

“Dracula” is an epistolary novel by Bram Stoker, originally published in 1897. For this research, the work was chosen for analysis based on the epistolary nature present in the diaries and in the letters written during the plot. Due to the lack of studies on epistolary nature in fantasy works, it sought to answer three guiding questions presented as the research problem/s throughout the study. These are: 1) What is the importance of literary epistles in the description of mystery and the supernatural in the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker?; 2) Why is Bram Stoker’s epistolary and/or Victorian novel considered fantasy literature?; 3) What is the impact of the narrative elements in Bram Stoker's “Dracula” during the presentation of the letters? This research is also relevant due to the arrangement of certain elements such as mystery and the supernatural in the novel. The main objective is to understand how epistolary nature adds to the narrative context the description of the settings and characters in a dark and gothic context, at the same time, in the light of fantasy literature. The specific objectives are to define, based on the theory of fantasy, the Victorian novel “Dracula”, by Bram Stoker, as a genre that creates hesitation between natural and supernatural explanations; to analyze the internal structure of the work, the arrangement of the environments, the characters, as well as the ambiguity between the real and the unreal; to explore the fantastic-extraordinary layer of the novel. Regarding the methodology, the research presents a qualitative, descriptive and bibliographic analysis as a result of the literary readings necessary for the foundation and theoretical framework of the study. These types of approaches seek to evaluate the importance of the novel genre as an essential factor in the construction of critical and questioning readers about the community in which they are inserted. The deductive method, in turn, will be the method of approach due to the general principle, that is, the literary theory about mystery and the supernatural in the work, the application of the principle in the analysis of Bram Stoker's novel, so that there is a broad relationship with the theoretical specificities. In short, research by Todorov (1981), Batalha (2013), Xatara (2004), Fusaro (2016), Lajolo (2002) and Cury (2001) had guided the thematic focus and the in-depth analysis of literary analyses.