Mulheres brancas e negras sob a ótica patriarcal na trilogia Lucas Procópio, Um cavalheiro de antigamente e Ópera dos mortos

Abstract

This study aims to comparatively analyze the white and black female characters and the social space occupied by them. This research studies Isaltina, Genuína, Rosalina, Adélia, Eufrásia, Joana and Quiquina, all of them present in the Autran Dourado’s trilogy called Ópera dos mortos (1967), Lucas Procópio (1985) and Um cavalheiro de antigamente (1992). The novels cover a time when there are still Brazilian colonial period traces, due this some discussions on the Brazilian society formation presented in Gilberto Freyre's book The Masters and the Slaves (1933) are used for an appropriate thought understanding present in the three narratives. Within the patriarchal order perspective, the female characters studied here are portrayed according to two terminologies by Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna (1984) "spouse women", a term used to describe white women from the bourgeois class, educated to constitute a family and responsible for maintaining the men's social status. And in opposition to the first, there are the "doable women", who are black or mestizo, who should sexually satisfy their masters and be a server. Furthermore, we use the considerations from the book Tecendo por trás dos panos (1994), by Maria Lúcia Rocha-Coutinho, the chapter entitled “Mulher e família burguesa” (2002), by Maria Ângela D'incao (História das mulheres no Brasil), and A criação do patriarcado: história da opressão das mulheres pelos homens, by Gerda Lerner (2019). Regarding the social space occupied by men and women, according to Reis (1987), it was divided into a nucleus, a space occupied by men, such as the omnipotent patriarch, and a nebulous space, which was occupied by women, black people, and other masters house members. In the same way, women had the house space, while men could move freely through all public spaces. However, in the studied books, in some cases, it is possible to observe an inversion in the space occupancy, with some men closing themselves in their homes. In other words, they occupied the woman's space, while the woman gained the streets, space that belongs to the man. Furthermore, some white women acted against the patriarchal order, suffering punishment, which served as an example to the readers in that time since reading was used as a form of education, considering that those narratives reveal, although not completely, anticipatory feminine elements that question the masculine order.