MEN AND ENCHANTED IN ARTHUR ENGRÁCIO'S FICTION

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze how the alliance between the natural and the supernatural occurs in the narratives of Amazonian short story writer Arthur Engrácio set in riverside communities, where the presence of the enchanted is recurrent, evidence that they are part of the normal order of things in the lives of the characters trapped in the immensity of the jungle and rivers. We selected, among the many mythological beings that permeate the narratives, three enchanted people linked to the mystery of the waters, which are the large snake (boiuna), the dolphin and the mother of water. To read the stories, we turned to Mircea Eliade's reflections in The Sacred and the Profane (1992). We conceive the term “enchanted” as a set of entities originating from indigenous mythologies, linked to the river and the forest, belonging to the supernatural world, but which exert influence on the lives of human beings. The study seeks to show that Arthur Engrácio reveals himself to be an excellent teller of riverside stories that are born from primordial mythical narratives, translating the traits of Amazonian ancestry, with the refinement of the short story writer's literary art.