Book, Tramas do Fantástico, As: short stories and novel[LS]

Language: Brazilian Portuguese. We know ETA Hoffmann, author of fantastic and horror stories and novels. We know little, however, about his close connection with music, as he himself was also a composer. This book brings to the reader an extraordinary synchrony between the writer of fantastic texts and the music lover, bringing together, in its first part, short stories and a novel that have music as their axis, later complemented in the Afterword by an essay by the volume's organizer on the intertwining of both fields in the author’s work. In the second part, the famous “The Sandman”, accompanied in the Appendix by the famous text by Sigmund Freud commenting on it, and other important stories give a glimpse of the brilliance of his production. FOURTH COVER ETA Hoffmann (1776-1822) was like few others, a truly passionate artist dedicated to two arts, literature and music. He knew how to convey the atmosphere of romanticism in his works, some of which would be transformed into operas or ballets (such as Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker), while composing musical pieces attributed to his alter-ego Johannes Kreisler, a character in many of his works. stories. This collection, which arrives in anticipation of the bicentenary of his death, aims precisely to introduce the Brazilian reader to these two facets of his work. The first part features short stories and a novel (“Kreisleriana”, which inspired Robert Schumann's work of the same name) in which the music, more than just a subject, is practically a character. In the second part, the stories that made him one of the main names in fantasy literature are collected, with emphasis on “The Sandman”, which Freud analyzed in a famous text “Das Unheimliche” (1919) also included here. The Afterword by Fernando R. de Moraes Barros, which closes this volume, analyzes in depth aspects of this work that two centuries after the death of its creator still enchants – and amazes. ETA Hoffmann (1776-1822) A famous writer and pioneer composer of German romanticism, this descendant of pastors and jurists was also a draftsman and was an employee of the judicial courts. Author of short stories such as “The Sandman” and “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, novels, such as Kreisleriana, and novels, The Devil's Elixir and Reflexões do Gato Murr (Estação Liberdade, 2013), he is one of the great names in fantasy and horror literature. He died in Berlin, aged 46, of syphilis. PARALELOS COLLECTION The Paralelos collection houses fiction literature and short stories of obvious literary quality. FROM THE COVER Cover image: Intervention on a drawing by ETA Hoffmann representing the author's alter ego, Johannes Kreisler. ETA Hoffmann was also a visual artist and often represented scenes from his own writings. Here, the author made a drawing representing boatswain Kreisler. EXCERPT There is, as I have heard, an old law that forbids noisy craftsmen from living near scholars. So shouldn't poor and oppressed composers – who, to continue weaving the thread of their lives, need to transform their enthusiasm into gold coins – apply this law to themselves, being able to banish crybabies and buglers from their surroundings? What would the painter say if he were presented with, when designing an idealized painting, only heterogeneous faces? If he closed his eyes, he would at least continue to retain the image intact in his fantasy. There is no point in putting cotton balls in your ears, given that you can still hear the murderous spectacle; and then the idea, the mere idea that they are now about to sing, that the bugle is coming, etc., is enough for the most sublime thoughts to be carried away by the devil! [Kreisleriana [I]] I felt like a cold, heavy rock was crushing me – my breathing started to fail! When I stood there, motionless, Mom took me by the arm: “Come, Nathanael, come!” I let myself go and went into my room. “Be still, calm, and lie down in bed! Sleeps! Sleep!”, my mother urged me; but, tortured by anxiety and an indescribable inner fear, I couldn't sleep a wink. The repulsive and hated Coppelius, with his sparkling eyes, was standing before me, smiling at me maliciously, and it was in vain that I tried to free myself from his image. It was already midnight, when a terrible bang was heard, as if a cannon had been fired. The whole house shook, and in front of my door, someone was rattling and murmuring; Finally, with a loud knock, the door of the house was closed. “It’s Coppelius”, I exclaimed in terror, jumping out of bed. [The Sandman] AFTERWORD Fernando R. de Moraes Barros In his work, on the contrary, the art of sounds and fictitious prose mix to form the fertile compound from which his pregnant literary-musical pieces are born and grow, true sketches specialized in ingeniously and ironically condensing the master narratives or great themes of music history. And there are three, in nuce, the devices he uses to achieve this success: 1. a sui generis literary style, which converges, in a key of intensive complementarity, fantasy and technical-critical vocabulary; 2. a parodic and caricatured diagnosis of the emerging bourgeois cultural face of nineteenth-century civil society, which ultimately boils down to a condemnatory assessment of the artistic philistinism of its time; and, finally, 3. a theoretical desire for a legitimately musical dramaturgy, the only one capable, in his view, of making joint work between orchestra, libretto and scenic prescriptions operational. Among others, one of the main objectives of the collection of texts now offered to us for reading is to give prominence and visibility to such seminal aspects OF “THE DISTURBADOR”, Sigmund Freud This succinct reproduction of the narrative will leave no doubt that here the feeling of the disturbing adheres directly to the image of the sandman, that is, to the very idea of ​​having one's eyes stolen, and that intellectual uncertainty, in the sense attributed by Jentsch, has absolutely nothing to do with this effect. The doubt about the vital animation that we had to allow for in the case of the Olímpia doll is absolutely not taken into consideration in this most pregnant example of the disturbing. It is true that the writer engenders in us, right from the start, a kind of insecurity, with which he, certainly on purpose, does not let us guess whether he will insert us into a real world or some fantastic world, of his choosing. As we know, he has every right to do one thing or another and, when he chooses, for example, as a stage for his performances, a world in which spirits, demons and ghosts act, just like Shakespeare in Hamlet or Macbeth or, in another sense, in The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, then we must give in to their appeals and treat this pre-conditioned world of theirs as a reality, at least during the time we surrender to it. However, throughout Hoffmann's tale, this doubt disappears, and we notice that the writer hopes to make us look through the glasses or telescope of the demonic optician; and that perhaps he himself, in the flesh, peered through such an instrument. The end of the story therefore makes it clear that the optician Coppola is in fact the lawyer Coppelius and that, therefore, he is also the sandman. SUMMARY IO “Sanctus” The Fermata The Counselor Krespel Kreisleriana [i] Kreisleriana [ii] II The Sandman The Mines of Falun The Devil in Berlin The Vampire Woman The Specter Haimatochare Appendix The Disturber [Sigmund Freud] Afterword From the Sanskrit Secret of Nature at Nights of the Spirit [Fernando R. de Moraes Barros]