O Cortiço de Aluísio Azevedo : a subversão feminina da ordem social sob as lentes do erotismo

Abstract

This research aims to review the work O Cortiço (1890), by Aluísio Azevedo. Using the dialectical method of internal analysis (the text) combined with external analysis (context), we will carry out a study of the central characters Bertoleza, Rita Baiana, Pombinha, Léonie and Estela, with the purpose of analyzing eroticism as a possible instrument for subversion of the social order in the final decade of the 19th century. From the critical bibliography of the novel it is possible to identify discontinuities in the writer's literary production. Between financial need and aesthetic achievement, the work was characterized by a hybrid character. In this sense, there is the construction of images and the use of synesthetic elements, which open doors to think about the eroticism of female characters. Anchored in the contributions of Bataille (1957), we understand eroticism as the break with the logic of utility and the search for superabundance that transgresses the limits of order. Thus, we will develop the hypothesis according to which the characters present modes of historical and sociocultural resistance, since, through eroticism, transgression and experience, they break with the principles of subjugation in force in the period, especially the patriarchal-capitalist order.