A construção imagética da Morte como personagem insólita em A menina que roubava livros (2005), de Markus Zusak

Abstract

This dissertation is grounded in the growing relevance of studies on the imaginary and the fictional uncanny within contemporary literary theory and criticism. Its objective is to investigate how the imagetic construction of the character Death, as a narrative subject, articulates the fictional uncanny in the novel The Book Thief (2005), by Markus Zusak, while symbolically updating primordial archetypal images. To this end, the research draws upon the studies of, among other theorists, Candido (2021), Rosenfeld (2021), Reis (2018), and Bordini (2006) concerning the fictional character, as well as the contributions of Todorov (2010) and Bessière (2012) to the study of the fantastic and the fictional uncanny, further engaging with the considerations of França (2015, 2016), Camus (2019), and Pietri (1990) in order to discuss its variants.In addition, the imagetic and symbolic analysis of the character is informed by Jung (2002, 2016), Bachelard (2008), and Durand (2012). This study is characterized as a bibliographic, qualitative, descriptive, analytical, exploratory, and applied research. The findings highlight the intersection between literature, the imaginary, and the collective unconscious, as well as underscore the plurality of manifestations of the fictional uncanny. The analysis demonstrates the presence of this character as an imagetic operator of multiple modalities of the fictional uncanny, encompassing a spectrum ranging from the Gothic to the uncanny, from the absurd to the marvelous, within a single narrative. Furthermore, it was observed that Zusak’s work resignifies archetypal images, constructing a portrayal of Death that oscillates between the diurnal and nocturnal regimes of imagery (in Durandian terms) and incorporates archetypes such as the Great Mother, the Wise Old Woman, and the Heroine, thereby endowing the narrative with a singular and sensitive perspective that challenges traditional representations of this figure. Thus, the novel emerges as a narrative that subverts conventions and expands the boundaries of literary experience by establishing a poetics of polyvalence centered on the character Death.