Representations Of The Dopplegänger In Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (1966), By Jorge Amado

Abstract

The doppelgänger has been present in literature for a long time, becoming more recurrent from the 18th century, in Romanticism. This figure was the main subject of innumerable academic works because it appears in literary texts in the most varied ways and under many different meanings. The main goal of this article is to carry out an interpretative analysis of the doppelgänger in Jorge Amado’s novel Dona Flor e seus dois maridos (1966) in the light of fantastic literature. The theoretical basis of this research are studies by Juan Herrero Cecilia (2000, 2011), Sigmund Freud (1976), Otto Rank (1939), and Clément Rosset (2008). Amidst the article’s conclusions, the constant presence of the doppelgänger as an idea of completeness ensured by the character of Vadinho – whose antithetical character his emphasized – must be highlighted. In this context, Amado displays the prevalence of the subjective doppelgänger and, in this regard, part of the narrative is related to the question of identity associated with the fantastic.