“Merecedoras das páginas da História”: narrativas biográficas na construção do gênero feminino no Brasil do oitocentos

Abstract

The following dissertation aims to analyse the relations between the discourses constructed about the female gender and the discoursive project of the formation of Brazilian identity, engendered by “men of letters” throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, as from one specific gender: biography. Understanding the biographical narratives as a writing with political uses and as a different way os access to the past, we sought to investigate what was the ideal of “feminine” that would appear as na example to the newly built Brazilian nation. The analysis is based on two objects: the book Brasileiras Célebres – written by Joaquim Norberto de Sousa e Silva and published in 1862 – and O Ano Biográfico Brasileiro – published by Joaquim Manuel de Macedo in 1876. The first object brings together narratives of the life of women who were considered as “deservers of the History pages”; the second presentes 365 biographies of people considered importante, of which nineteen are women. It is noticeable for the very existing of theses narratives that the women were not completely absent in the identity construction of Brazilian civilisation, although they were relegated to a secondary role in the primarly male-based historical narratives. But their presence also shows that there was a specific role expected of women, built for them by men and linked to a political project.