Mulheres inventadas: uma leitura do machismo estrutural no romance de Charles Bukowski

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation was to analyze the relationship between man and woman, as subjects of desire, in the novel Women (2019), by the American Charles Bukowski. We start from the idea that the plot structures a discussion about gender, based on sexual and affection practices, which fallaciously make men and women equal in the relationship, although in deeper readings of that narrative we perceive the opposite. Such an opposition is exactly where the focus of this research is placed: the foul language and the sexual performance of the male protagonist, Henry Chinaski, directed at the various women he interacts with in the narrative, diminishes the female characters, when both genders enter into a game in which the words that ignite the desire seem to satisfy the couple, at least temporarily, but the final word only belongs to the man. The gender issue is detached from the protagonist's desire and analyzed in light of his misogynistic performance, separated in different chapters. In the first analytical chapter, we developed an analysis predominantly focused on misogynistic practices, even those with the consent of women who are invented by him. In this way, the first thesis is that structural misogyny apparently seems to benefit women in regard to body and desire, but the result is the women’s degradation. In the second, we analyze how the language used by the protagonist is based on a neo-naturalism that moves the narrative closer to the readers by eliciting desires through sparks of verisimilitude. All the language used disfavors women and glorifies an extremist view of heavy, aggressive male chauvinism. The theoretical framework chapter is based on discussions around masculinities (NOLASCO, 1995; CONNEL, 2015; COURTINE, 2013), the construction of the self by women and their sexual enjoyment (TOURAINE, 2010; MUCHEMBLED, 2007), and the pornographic or obscene language (MAINGUENEAU, 2010; ORSI & ZAVAGLIA, 2010; 2012; PRECIADO, 2017).