Além dos códigos morais: masculinidade e seus conflitos nos romances A filha do arcediago e A neta do arcediago, de Camilo Castelo Branco

Abstract

This dissertation studies the representations of masculinities in the novels A filha do arcediago (1854) [The daughter of the Archdeacon] and A neta do arcediago (1856) [The granddaughter of the Archdeacon], by Camilo Castelo Branco (1825-1890). We analyze them based on how they are configured and integrated in the Portuguese society of the 19th century in relation to the social, political and economic transformations from the rise of the bourgeoisie. We hypothesize that such transformations have contributed to the emergence of two ways of expressing masculinity: a) in the Old Regime, through the preservation of honor, based on the defense of titles of nobility and social prestige; b) from the consolidation of the bourgeoisie, through the achievement of profit and social rights. Thus, we aim at understanding how the emergence of new moral values have contributed to characterize other masculine configurations. The masculine principles, products of a bourgeois environment, preserved certain demands that generated the sensation of horror in some men, leading them, at times, to react in a subversive and violent manner. Consequently, due to the normalization of this masculinity, the subjugation of women intensified, some of whom, in response to the imposed moral and psychological limitations, took on positions of anti-masculinity. In this sense, the works that constitute our fictional corpus, The daughter of the Archdeacon and The granddaughter of the Archdeacon, are interpreted as a social criticism, in order to highlight the demonstrations of masculinities (and the reactions to them) in different characters. As a theoretical basis for this, we draw on the studies on masculinities by José Carlos Barcellos, Michael Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and Alain Corbin, from which we develop reflections on virility, anti-masculinity, female homoerotism and violence.