O Curso das águas nos mares de Helena Parente Cunha: os provisórios e vento ventania vendaval

Abstract

The field of literary theories has consecrated the women´s appearance in the historical-literary process. With the impetus of feminist critique, has become possible look texts written by women in a different way, respecting at the context of literary production – the place of speech - a determining factor to direct the literary production of women. The critique offers another key that respects the historical process carried by writers, unlike the canon, which is naturalized and excluding. From the critical analysis of the works Os Provisórios (1980) and Vento Ventania Vendaval (1998), by Bahian writer Helena Parente Cunha, we had the perception of how the author's short stories explore female identities. The temporal distance between the two works also allows the confirmation and/or refutation of changes occurred in the representation of the feminine. Furthermore, we reflect about the socio-historical context of the works within the eighteen years that separate them, in order to show the advances or processes still stagnant from one period to another. For this master´s research, the corpus consists of the selection of eight short stories from these two works Helena Parente Cunha, which address issues around gender inequality, presenting a discourse of criticism and social denunciation. In this regard, gender relations will be approached, as well as the exploitations suffered by women in public and private spaces immersed in patriarchal practices. Of a bibliographic nature, the investigation also intends to understand the different aspects that interfere both in dealing with women in society and in the roles they are relegated to. Will be explored the concepts about literary historiography and the space of feminist critique and visibility of female authorship. In the analysis process, we dialogue with the theoretical assumptions of: Pateman (1993), Showalter (1994), Perrot (1995), Saffioti (2004), Schmidt (2008) and Zinani (2012), among others.