“Let the child's eyes pop out in terror”. Transtextual and discursive ways to induce horror in children's audience in Fryda Schultz de Mantovani's "El brujo de paja"

Abstract

Fryda Schultz de Mantovani, a prestigious Argentine intellectual that lived in the past century, was part of the acclaimed “grupo Sur”. She contributed as editor and writer forthe homonymous magazine. Her work as an essayist produced many volumes on infants’ literature and psychology. Among other genres, she published poetic and dramatic texts for children. El árbol guarda-voces appeared in 1956, in El Salvador, and containsa three-act comedy called El brujo de paja (‘The Straw Sorcerer’). The author here in introduces “El brujo de paja”, reminiscent ofthe boogeyman —a character that frightens children in folkloreoral stories—, who kidnaps them while sleeping. The way in whichMantovani brings up terror in infants reveals itself interesting. The brujo’s lines are analyzed from a discursive, transtextual standpoint, and related to classic and contemporary authors.