Frenetic literature in romanticism: Brazil and France under the sign of Satan

Abstract

The frenetic narrative presents itself surrounded by a horror atmosphere that can be a result of the introduction of a supernatural element and usually leans on a set of typical pieces: persecution, graveyards, castles in ruins, torture, outrages. Having roots that antecede the French Revolution, the frenetic narrative in France did not draw as much attention as the interest aroused by the gothic novel in England, what did not prevent the frenetic from persisting under diverse forms. In Brazil, Álvares de Azevedo shows himself as an author who represents this literary modality, which is a branch of the Brazilian romanticism that was named by convention as ultra-romanticism. This tendency, which was followed by young writes that practiced in their works the exaggerations of the romanticist movement, includes also the attraction to death and the image of the devil among its developed themes and motifs, making the excesses of the French frenetic literature well known.