O espelho de Frida Kahlo: reflexos e refrações de um corpo grotesco

Abstract

Frida Kahlo's pictorial work is world-renowned. Her paintings have already been the object of investigation in some areas of knowledge in the academic world. However, nowadays, the pictures are used as a corpus of research, developed in the most diverse fields of knowledge. Our work is, in a way, inaugural in the world of the humanities, in this sense, as it crosses the border of the artistic sphere and is also established in the space of the painter's intimate and private sphere. The possibility of carrying out such a task was realized only because her private production became public. Her intimate diary was published, her private epistolary collection became a book, her personal photos were gathered and also published in a book. Therefore, we can say that this thesis aims to investigate the elements of the Bakhtinian grotesque (Bakhtin, 2013) present in the female body that is portrayed in self-portraits and in some pages of the intimate diary of the world-famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. This research was provoked and exists by the desire to scrutinize and answer, among others, the following questions: What elements of the grotesque are found in the corpus presented here? Are these characteristics enough to give the female body, represented by Frida, the status quo of a grotesque body, in the Bakhtinian perspective? To ensure the effectiveness of this work, it was necessary to confront ideas on the borders that unite them and assume a theoretical and methodological position. Thus, our thesis is based on the foundations of the transgressive and transdisciplinary Applied Linguistics (Lopes, 2019) and Bakhtinian theory (Bakhtin, 2010; 2013; 2015; 2016; 2018). Moreover, we also chose, as a more pragmatic methodological path, to imbue ourselves with a qualitative-interpretivist nature for our research, which implies saying that we believe in the socio-historical and ethically engaged answers given by Frida Kahlo's body, portrayed in the self-portraits we have chosen, to the questions raised during our journey. We also believe that the motto and tools used by the painter and woman Frida, in their most varied faces, took on grotesque characteristics to reach her horizons of interest.