O Gótico feminino na literatura brasileira: um estudo de Ânsia eterna, de Júlia Lopes de Almeida

Abstract

Since its genesis in the eighteenth-century England, Gothic fiction has been counting on considerable contributions from works by women. The relation between Gothic and the women writing has brought about a fictional tradition named Female Gothic , term coined by Ellen Moers (1976). A perspective framed by women s concerns has added distinctive horrors to the Gothic, such as (a) domestic secrets, (b) physical and/or psychological abuses, and (c) daily oppressions from patriarchal figures. In this dissertation, we first and foremost aim at highlighting the main features of Female Gothic texts. As for that, we will be based theoretically on David Punter (1996) and Fred Botting (1996), as much as on statements by Anne Williams (1995) regarding plots and motifs upon this tradition. We will also be pointing out that such branch of Gothic fiction furnished nineteenth-century Brazilian women writers with tools to depict the hardships of being a woman. We have scrutinized, for this reason, the book Ânsia eterna (1903), by Júlia Lopes de Almeida. We believe that her short stories offer close connections with the women tradition of Gothic literature.