Representações do Eu nas Autobiografias de Rita Lee

Abstract

In this work, we analyze the construction of the self in the autobiographies “Rita Lee – Uma Autobiografia” (2016) and “Outra Autobiografia” (2023), written by Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho and published by Globo Livros. The first work offers a new perspective on the artist’s trajectory, from her childhood in São Paulo in the 1940s until her imprisonment by the military regime in 1976, passing through her departure from Os Mutantes in 1972, her rise as the “queen of Brazilian rock,” and her confrontation with difficulties such as drug and alcohol addiction. The second provides an intimate account of the last three years, presenting a diagnosis of lung cancer amid the pandemic, spirituality, routine, and reflections on death and aging. These works are conceptually based on Philippe Lejeune’s autobiographical pact (1975), citing subjective truth, and Serge Doubrovsky’s autofiction (1977) regarding the freedom of fiction. The analysis combines Pollyanna Reis Dias’s critiques (2019) on the singer’s engagement during the dictatorship, reflections by Jéssica Feijó (2024) on narrative freedom according to Murdock’s “Heroine’s Journey” (1990), and studies by Tiago Ramos and Mattos on the pronoun “I” (2022), while comparisons with Rolling Stone interviews are part of verifying the convergence between the context provided by the media and the autobiography. The findings represent an intricate self-image characterized by ironic challenges, rebellion, feminism, vulnerability, and spirituality that transcend the boundaries of reality to create a highly literary construction.