The dark face of Alexandre Herculano: historical views of the evil in the construction of the supernatural in “A Dama Pé de Cabra”

Abstract

Genre which evokes distinct interests in the history and in the literary cri­tic, the noir literature, as it is known the supernatural stories of the XIX century, presents various branches not yet explored. In Portugal, Alexan­dre Herculano consolidates himself as the precursor of historical novels, result of the harmony between his work collecting Portuguese historical sources and his romantic esthetic project. His works, however, reveal a dark side little studied, influenced by the French noir short stories, the English horror ballad, and the German macabre narratives. This work, therefore, proposes to investigate the processes of construction of dark atmosphere in short story “A Dama Pé de Cabra” as well as to investigate how the author conciliates the compression of medieval Evil in a romantic project.