Era uma vez uma mulher: a representação do gênero feminino nos contos de fada de Andersen

Abstract

Hans Christian Andersen is a Danish writer, author of several children's tales, who has winning everyone’s hearts for his stories approaching a romantic character and from his different look at the different social classes. In light of this, from the observation of the female characters ‘presence in some of his tales, we sought, in this research, to analyze the presence of the woman on the following tales: “Não prestava para nada (1852 – 1855)”, “A princesa e a ervilha (1835)”, “Os sapatos vermelhos (1845)” e “História de uma mãe” (1847-1848); considering the historical context, which was marked by a great division of classes. Thus, for the accomplishment of this work, we made bibliographical researches, in the light of theorists who deal with the Hans Christian Andersen’s life, and women’s roles, such as Nelly Novaes Coelho (2011), Mariza B. T. Mendes (2000), as well as the ones that discuss the question of the role of women in society: Cecil Jeanine Albert Zinani e Salete Rosa Pezzi dos Santos (2015), Norma Telles (2012) and others. From this study, we verified the feminine role, in these tales, and the vision of the figure of the woman by the patriarchal society regent at the time. The female characters’ nonviewing by society present the social injustices relapsed on them and their difficulties of surviving in that environment. From these results, we expect that this research will contribute critically to the study of Hans Christina Andersen and children's literature, as well as the issue of women and their representation.