Makunaima: between facts and fictions

Abstract

This article aims to launch a discussion focused on the process of creating facts and fictions in the narratives that present Makunaima as a character. To this end, written reports from a German naturologist and oral reports from a documentary will be analyzed. In this way, the corpus for research is the work Vom Roroima zum Orinoco (From Roraima to Orinoco), specifically the book Myths and legends of the Taulipangue and Arecuná Indians, which presents the collection of narratives that were collected during the years of 1911 to 1913 on the triple border-Brazil, Venezuela and English Guiana- by the German traveler Theodor Koch-Grünberg; as well as the documentary “On the trails of Makunaima”, produced in 2007 by TV Cultura, in partnership with the Federal University of Roraima. This research was bibliographic and covered the branch of literary theory, more specifically the theory of reception, which contributes to the study of the concepts of facts and fictions; travelers' literature, in which are the accounts collected by Koch-Grünberg about the figure of Makunaima; and oral reports about the indigenous character present in the documentary. Some of the theoretical references used were the reception theory books by Wolfgang Iser and those by Karlheinz Stierle. These will provide the necessary support for theoretical discussions involving facticity and fictionality.