Uma prosa curta num fio: violência e feminino em contos de Mia Couto

Abstract

The present work has as its corpus tales by Mia Couto that address violence against women. The research questions that guided this thesis are: 1. What are the different types of violence against women, and how are they constructed in the narrative of the Mozambican writer? 2. How do female characters react to aggressive contexts and situations? 3. What aesthetic procedures are recurrent in the construction of Mia Couto's stories, especially in those that bring situations of violence against women? From these initial inquiries, the general objective of the research is to investigate, throughout Mia Couto's short story production, the scenes and situations of violence against women. As specific objectives, we have: 1. To present and discuss the critical fortune focused on Mia Couto's short narrative; 2. To recapture the different conceptions of violence and its configuration in the literature; 3. To analyze the presence of gender violence in eighteen short stories by Mia Couto. The analytical approach adopted seeks to combine a more detailed analysis of the texts, focusing on some structural elements of the narrative, notably, plot and character, with the thematic approaches that gained strength with the advent of Cultural Studies. Thus, we rely mainly on Auerbach (2001) and on theories focused on characters (CANDIDO, 2007; BOURNEF & OUELLET, 1976; BACHELARD, 2003). Among the readings on Mia Couto's short narrative, we highlight the contributions of Fonseca and Moreira (2007), Afonso (2004), Fonseca and Cury (2008), Chaves and Macêdo (2013), Secco (2013), Cavacas (2015/ 2013) and Marques (2013). Within the scope of reflections on violence and violence in literature, the elaborations of Bourdieu (2011), Girard (2001), Odalia (1983), Han (2017), Lyra (1980) and Leenhardt (1990); more specifically regarding violence against women, we observe the reflections of: Davis (2017), bell hooks (2019), Saffioti (1987; 2004) and Lerner (2019). The survey results reveal a broad panel of violence against women of different ages, in different contexts and times, practiced by husbands, fathers and other men with whom they have some type of relationship. On the other hand, we observe forms of resistance that, although not articulated in a movement, point to a way of surviving the violence of which they are victims.