Novas Efervescências do Fantástico

A duplicação do tempo-espaço no episódio "Cidade dos gatos" de 1Q84 de Haruki Murakami

Abstract

While the literary production of the traditional fantastic genre can be more or less traced to the 18th and 19th century, considering transformations in the literary mode means welcoming the effusive appearances of the fantastic until the present day (FURTADO, 2009). This article investigates contemporary manifestations of fantastic literature, based on the semantic and structural configurations of the short story “Town of cats” by Haruki Murakami, analyzing the use of elements of spatialization and temporalization to construct semantic tension (PRADA OROPEZA, 2006). Based on this structure, the double meaning particular to the fantastic literary mode (BESSIÈRE, 1973) can be considered. In the narrative, due to transformations of day/night, the city can be comprehended on two planes, offering two orders of meaning, a meta-empirical order, and an empirical-rational order (FURTADO, 1980). The story's irresolution maintains the apory of its full explanation, in which no order manages to account for all the elements of the narrative, indicating the in-between place of uncertainty (BESSIÈRE, 1973) of the genuinely fantastic.