Desvirtuantes: as mulheres e o medo nas narrativas góticas de Júlia Lopes de Almeida

Abstract

Women are present in famous paintings displayed in the world's greatest museums and in the pages of literary works as ancient as writing itself. However, it took centuries for them to gain recognition as authors and creators of their own stories. Deprived of autonomy over the act of creation, women have often been doomed to a life of sacrifice and servitude. In the context of fear literature, rejecting this fate positions them as witches, demons, sirens, or Medusas. When they attempt to tell their own versions of stories, their voices are frequently silenced, and their narratives erased, perpetuating the logic that confines them to the role of inspiration or instrument, never that of the author of their own creation. Faced with the historical erasure that marginalized women's writing, this research revisits the trajectories of fear literature in Brazil, taking Noite na Taverna (1855) as a starting point—an emblematic work of the male canon that exemplifies paradigms of female representation as monstrous. It then seeks to highlight the importance of female authors in constructing new narrative perspectives. To this end, it investigates representations of fear and femininity in 19th-century Brazilian literature, focusing on the work of Júlia Lopes de Almeida, one of the most significant authors of her time. Thus, the analysis centers on the short stories “A Nevrose da Cor,” “Os Porcos,” and “O Caso de Ruth” from the anthology Ânsia Eterna (1903), examining how the female characters created by the Brazilian author subvert traditional roles, challenge patriarchal conventions, and redefine protagonism within the genre. Using an interdisciplinary theoretical approach, this study engages with Júlio França (2022) and Ana Paula Araújo dos Santos (2022) on Gothic literature, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (2000) on monstrosity, and Mary Del Priore (2009) and Norma Telles (2022) on the historical analysis of femininity. The study argues that Júlia’s writing incorporates elements of the universal Gothic imagination, reinterpreting them with Brazilian specificities, and employs fear literature not as escapism but as a tool for critical reflection and confrontation of the cultural and social tensions of the young Brazilian republic.