The double in E.T.A. Hoffmann's short stories

• Grant number: 18/11680-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: October 01, 2018
• End date: March 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Literature Theory
• Principal Investigator: Marcus Vinicius Mazzari
• Grantee: Rafael Rocca dos Santos
• Supervisor: Jorg Paulus
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/03412-9 - The double in selected short stories of E. T. A. Hoffmann, BP.MS

Abstract

The motive of the double is paramount in the nineteenth century literature, when the investigation of the human mind and philosophical developments tried to deal with the various possibilities of manifestation of human concerns and anguishes. The double appears in the literature, an environment in which philosophical, psychological and aesthetic features are discussed, as one possible answer to such anguishes and to the "night side" of the human mind through confrontation of oneself with oneself as a reflected image. This poses questions regarding the core of the individual's identity and the possibility of facing ideas and ideals in confrontation. In this panorama, German Romanticism was especially relevant for the development of a literature that investigated the causes and consequences of self-discovery and self-confrontation, especially by authors such as Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) and E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822). This Project of Research Abroad addresses the study of Jean Paul, the creator of the terminology Doppelgänger (double) and the first German novel that dealt specifically with the double in literature, and E.T.A. Hoffmann's relation with and development from Jean Paul's writings, besides furthering and deepening the study of Hoffmann's views on this motive, which served as a starting point for many authors who wrote under his influence. (AU)