O que os monstros continuam a nos mostrar: a representação das minorias em H.P Lovecraft e Guillermo del Toro

Abstract

The present research aims to analyze how the monstrous imaginary created by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft—specifically in the novella The Shadow over Innsmouth—is rooted in a xenophobic and racist worldview prevalent during the early decades of the 20th century and how this vision can be revisited and subverted to foster contemporary readings that engage with the place of the monstrous Other. More specifically, the study seeks to demonstrate how the novel The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus values the difference represented by the monster while simultaneously criticizing prejudiced and exclusionary discourses. It proposes the hypothesis that the monster in both Lovecraft's The Shadow over Innsmouth and Del Toro's The Shape of Water functions as a metaphor for discussing social tensions surrounding alterity and marginalized minorities. In Lovecraft’s work, the monster symbolizes order, normativity, and the fear and repulsion of racial and cultural Others. In contrast, Guillermo del Toro and Kraus reframe the monster as a herald of alterity, a symbol of empathy, visibility, and resistance for minorities. Methodologically, the study is bibliographic and exploratory in nature, drawing on previously published works in the field of the fantastic and grounded in cultural studies that contribute to the theme of the “monstrous Other” in representation and alterity. The research is supported by critical perspectives from authors such as Tzvetan Todorov (1970), Remo Ceserani (2006), Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (2000), Mary Del Priore (1996), Zygmunt Bauman (1998), Kappler (1994), Luiz Nazário (1998), Sunand Tryambak Joshi (2014), Martha Robles (1995), S. T. Joshi (2013), Stuart Hall (2004), and Gayatri Spivak (1985), among others. Therefore, it is understood that the dialogue between Lovecraft and Guillermo del Toro, each within their own contexts, reveals that the representation of the monster and the monstrous has evolved over time: while Lovecraft, in horror literature, uses the monstrous as a metaphor for fear of the Other, del Toro critically revisits, subverts, and re-signifies this figure, portraying the fictional monster as a herald of resistance and empathy, and human characters as carriers of moral monstrosity.