O banquete fantástico no conto “O dia em que comemos Maria Dulce”, de Antônio Mariano

Abstract

Hunger, misery, and childhood are common themes in literature. These themes come together in the short story “O dia em que comemos Maria Dulce” (2015), extracted from the work of the same name, by Paraíba’s writer Antônio Mariano. In a fantastic narrative that attracts readers not only for its rupture with reality - especially in the configuration of a character with a dubious nature of girl and sweet -, we see the social factor as a driving force for the unfolding of the plot tied of the disturbing perception of reality, which carries with it a certain plasticity and lyrism typical of a literature capable of ravishing their readers by confronting and attracting them in relation to the text. With the aim of observing how the limits between reality and unusual are established, the study analyses the presence of fantastic literature in the mentioned narrative. There is a succession of metaphors that gradually slides into the plane of literalness and, as a consequence, breaks to the stability of the diegetic universe, in order to introduce the fantasticity.  Based on the conceptions of Roas (2014), Todorov (1975), and Jaime Alazraki (2001), it will be highlighted some discursive strategies that cooperate to the conversion of the plot, described from the perspective of the consequences of an overwhelming drought, the fantastic atmosphere.