Entre mulheres e fronteiras, um escritor: lugares do feminino na obra de Lima Barreto (1902-1922)

Abstract

The span of time between 1902 and 1922 comprehend the trajectory of Brazilian writer Lima Barreto, both in Brazilian literary metier and in the public service at the Secretary of War. Also, it comprehends his trajectory along many other places in which he circulated and could observe the several transformations the city of Rio de Janeiro was undergoing, such as the discursive practices and actions underlying the distribution of female and male social places, i.e., gender conventions. In this context, the private spaces of the house were those marked for female acting, while the public spaces were reserved for man: public institutions, the parliament, among others. During this time, the writer produced chronicles, short stories, and novels in which he presents a variety of images and statements regarding the issue of being a woman in such society. Under this light, the research proposed by this work aims at analysing the place of the female in the author´s writings. Barreto´s woman is presented, both in domestic and public space, as submissive and intellectually limited. At the same time, contradictorily, she is inscribed, when re-presented in public spaces, as transgressive and able to act on subversive mechanisms regarding male domination upon her. These elaborations regarding women were examined from a historical perspective in relation to the author´s life and work aiming at sheltering his interpretation of these female cartographies as well as the ambiguities of these Barretian women. The research carried out reveals the co-existence of a writer that would denounce the shortcomings experienced by women while against the rising female movement, a critic of homogenizing certainties but also a supporter of scientific discourses and female disqualifying habits. The sources of this piece of research were his correspondences, personal notes, articles and chronicles and, particularly, the novels Clara dos Anjos, Numa e a Ninfa, Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, and Vida e Morte de M. J. Gonzaga de Sá. The theoretical approach was based on Michel Foucault, Félix Guattari and Suely Rolnik, namely regarding the concepts of heterothopy and subjectivity, respectively. Also, we have based our elaborations on Judith Butler’s concept and discussions regarding gender. These choices have allowed us to interpret the historicity of female acting operated by the author, as discursive registrations of the experience he had undergone along his trajectory.