Circuito Ubu : Abril de 2023

Nathanael’s childhood is haunted by the mysterious figure of Coppelius, a lawyer-friend of his father who regularly turns up at their house for night-time alchemical sessions. Nathanael associates Coppelius with the mythical Sandman, the legendary being said to steal the eyes of children who refuse to go to sleep. When Nathanael’s father dies as a result of an experiment gone wrong, this ominous mental link is sealed once and for all. Years later, with Nathanael now a university student, unwelcome memories are reawakened by the arrival in town of Italian barometer salesman Coppola. Could he be Coppelius under an assumed name? And what is his association with Professor Spalanzani? Nathanael’s ruminations increasingly skirt obsession. His infatuation with Olimpia, Spalanzani’s perfectly-formed but strangely uncommunicative daughter, only adds to his emotional confusion.

I have the impression that continental Gothic tends to be more earnest and intense than English Gothic. No doubt this is a generalisation which invites any number of exceptions. However, it is certainly true of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Sandman (1816). Almost unremittingly dark, its bleakness is only tempered, if at all, by occasional bursts of black humour. The plot is underpinned by vague aura of supernatural dread, although from the start there is a strong suggestion that this is a tale not of ghosts or monsters but of a very human madness which may be more terrifying than any phantom.

A classic of its kind, The Sandman has inspired later authors including Poe and composers such as Delibes and Offenbach. This annotated Alma Classics edition features a new translation by Christopher Moncrieff and includes in an Appendix a few pages from Sigmund Freud’s The Uncanny – a celebrated essay which gives a predictably psycho-sexual interpretation of Hoffmann’s novella. ( )

Pobre Nathaniel é um mancebo lunático? Ou há realmente um homem da areia, a fazer-nos sonhar acordado? De modo que aos poucos a sua imaginação, apesar das advertências psicoanalíticas de seu primeiro amor Clara, toma conta de sua vida, realizando projeções exacerbadas que nos dão um aspecto do lúgubre misturado à vergonha alheia. ( )

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8479690941