Horrores femininos na literatura gótica brasileira de Júlia Lopes de Almeida

Abstract

Gothic portrays the terrible and evokes negative emotions through elements such as the locus horribilis, the ghostly past and the monstrous character. In order to characterize the Brazilian gothic literature, the gothic tales of Ânsia eterna (1903), a collection by Júlia Lopes de Almeida, were analyzed. Brazilian literary criticism of the 19th century disapproved of such bias, as documental writing was seen as representative of nationality. However, the hypothesis raised here is that Almeida adapted the context of world gothic literature to relevant aspects of the Brazilian reality. She portrayed the fears and anxieties coming from of the changes brought about by the arrival of the 20th century, demonstrating the horrors that were part of people's daily lives. This dissertation aims to contribute to the expansion of studies on the work of Júlia Almeida, showing that the author's Gothic production was not limited to Feminine Gothic, also dedicating herself to the composition of narratives that integrate Gothic in its broadest sense. It was observed that the writer used gothic poetics to provoke in the reader a reflection on everyday horrors, considering that their horrible places are casually presented and the monstrosities are usually humans with moral deviations. For its development, this bibliographical research was based on the theories of David Punter (1996), Júlio França (2016), Maurício Menon (2007) and Noël Carroll (1999).