DO CORPO OBJETO AO CORPO LIVRE: UMA LEITURA FEMINISTA DE ALCIENE RIBEIRO LEITE

Abstract

This work aims to diachronically analyze the short story production of Alciene Ribeiro Leite, based on the selection of publications from 1977 to 2019. 1990, and the second in the decades from 2000 to 2010. Although constant themes remain in the work, especially gender relations, which permeate the stories analyzed in this thesis, we note that the way in which the narrator's ideology manifests itself in the literary discourse changes over time, with major changes from one phase to the next – such a change, we believe, is directly related to the way society deals with gender relations at different times when short stories are published. In order to test the hypothesis, eight short stories were selected, four from the first stage of production, and four from the second stage of production. The stories were then divided into pairs, considering their theme, and organized according to the characters' degree of consciousness. So, in the first chapter, we have the short stories “Teúda e Manteúda” (originally published in 1978) and “Aviso Prévio” (2019), which deal with labor and gender relations, with male employers and female employees. In the second chapter, “Ave Maria das Graças Santos” (1984) and “Independência e Morte” (2019), two short stories that narrate feminicides resulting from domestic violence. In the third, “Vinte anos de Amélia” (1977) and “Plenilúnio” (2003), in which the characters reflect on their condition as women. In the last chapter, “Transa” (1982) and “Pensar axillas” (2019), we have two protagonists in the quest to live their sexuality freely. As a theoretical contribution, we use, in addition to the close reading technique, Hemingway's iceberg theory, Piglia's short story thesis, Gilbert and Gubar's palimpsest, and Simone de Beauvoir's feminist reflections. Keywords: short story; feminism; contemporary Brazilian literature; Alciene Ribeiro Leite.