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The Monstrous Lineage of Adamastor and His Critics

2017; Linguagem: Inglês

10.62791/53nq6n44

2573-1432

Josiah Blackmore,

Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

Abstract: This article considers the figure of Adamastor in Os Lusíadas and, in particular, Adamastor’s status as a monster and how this becomes implicated into criticism of the poem. The article argues that Adamastor’s monstrosity invests him with a special hermeneutic currency. Comments are made on monsters in literary and cultural criticism. Then, Manuel de Faria e Sousa’s commentary on the Adamastor episode in his 1639 edition of Os Lusíadas is analyzed. In this text, Adamastor’s monstrous body is key to establishing him as a contravening principle to Portuguese imperialism.