Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Teoria Literária e Literaturas, Pós-Graduação em Literatura, 2011. / Submitted by Albânia Cézar de Melo (albania@bce.unb.br) on 2012-03-12T15:03:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_WiliamAlvesBiserra.pdf: 3946093 bytes, checksum: 5a7e1e2352533add50ff5d06baeda9f7 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marília Freitas(marilia@bce.unb.br) on 2012-03-20T12:36:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_WiliamAlvesBiserra.pdf: 3946093 bytes, checksum: 5a7e1e2352533add50ff5d06baeda9f7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-03-20T12:36:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_WiliamAlvesBiserra.pdf: 3946093 bytes, checksum: 5a7e1e2352533add50ff5d06baeda9f7 (MD5) / A presente tese procura compreender a marginalização das mulheres no imaginário católico romano e sua exclusão do sacerdócio, por meio da análise de três obras: A Legenda Áurea, do frade dominicano Jacopo Devarazze (séc. XIII d.C.) e os romances The Wild Girl e Impossible Saints da escritora inglesa contemporânea Michèle Roberts. Além disso, serão discutidas obras paralelas que foram importantes para a construção dos romances: o anônimo Evangelho Gnóstico de Maria (c. 230 d.C.) e O Livro da Vida de Santa Teresa d ‘Ávila (Séc. XVI, d.C). A ortodoxia romana não nasceu pronta, precisou se impôr por meio de séculos de luta. Em algum momento nessa longa trajetória, as mulheres foram excluídas da estrutura hierárquica eclesial. Elas haviam sido muito importantes para o estabelecimento do cristianismo, eram pregadoras, missionárias e sacerdotisas. Uma vez estatizado o movimento, porém, foram ideologicamente vilificadas pela ortodoxia e proibidas de exercer o sacerdócio. Michèle Roberts buscou questionar essa injustiça histórica por meio da literatura. Os romances da autora, que foram escolhidos para análise questionam, recontam e desconstroem a tradição cristã. A autora se vale do feminismo e das técnicas ficcionais contemporâneas para subverter a metanarrativa patriarcal que satanizou o corpo e reificou a mulher. O aspecto literário irá juntar-se às questões históricas, políticas, teológicas e psicológicas para perguntar: afinal, as Santas feministas são impossíveis ou não? ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / This thesis aims to understand the marginalization of women in Roman Catholic imaginary and their exclusion from priesthood. Such will be done by means of analyzing three works: The Golden Legend, by dominican friar Jacopo Devarazze (13th century C.E.) and the novels The Wild Girl and Impossible Saints, by contemporary British author Michèle Roberts. Besides, other works that were important for the writing of the novels will also be dicussed, namely: the anonymous Gnostic Gospel of Mary (c. 230 C.E.) and The Book of My Life, by Saint Teresa of Ávila (16th century C.E.). Roman Orthodoxy wasn’t born ready, it had to be developed and imposed through many centuries of struggle. At some point in this long way, women were excluded from church hierarchy. They had been preachers, missionaries and priests, and were very important in establishing Christianity. However, once the movement got official they were ideologically vilified by the Orthodoxy and were forbidden priesthood. MIchèle Roberts tried to question such historical injustice through fiction. Her novels chosen for this thesis analyse, re-tell and deconstruct Christian tradition. The author uses feminism and contemporary narrative methods to subvert the patriarchal metanarrative that devilized the body and reified women. The literary aspect will side with historical, political, theological and psychological questions in order to ask: are feminist Saints impossible or not?

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Teoria Literária e Literaturas, 2008. / Submitted by Priscilla Brito Oliveira (priscilla.b.oliveira@gmail.com) on 2009-09-09T20:59:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert_Janaina Fontes.pdf: 962665 bytes, checksum: d3e9bfcb2facb6d6d8d11970f7ce2ec6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Guimaraes Jacqueline(jacqueline.guimaraes@bce.unb.br) on 2009-12-12T12:18:06Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert_Janaina Fontes.pdf: 962665 bytes, checksum: d3e9bfcb2facb6d6d8d11970f7ce2ec6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2009-12-12T12:18:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert_Janaina Fontes.pdf: 962665 bytes, checksum: d3e9bfcb2facb6d6d8d11970f7ce2ec6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / A experiência da maternidade tem suscitado complexos sentimentos desde os mitos existentes nas primeiras sociedades, que comparavam a capacidade reprodutiva das mulheres às forças da natureza. Durante os séculos, tal comparação foi distorcida pela sociedade patriarcal para satisfazer seus interesses, causando a opressão e o sofrimento de milhares de mulheres. Esse processo está presente também na literatura, que é capaz de refletir e perpetuar essas distorções ou desconstruí-las, contribuindo para novas visões dessa complexa experiência. Neste trabalho, analiso a representação da maternidade em romances de autoria feminina, mais precisamente, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman e Mary, a Fiction, de Mary Wollstonecraft (escritora inglesa do século XVIII), e Fair Exchange, de Michèle Roberts (escritora inglesa contemporânea), auxiliada por exemplos em diversos textos teóricos de como o papel da mãe foi construído ao longo do tempo e pela contribuição dos estudos feministas para a desconstrução dos mitos patriarcais sobre a maternidade. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / The experience of motherhood has roused complex feelings since the myths existing in the first societies, wich used to compare women’s reproductive capability to the forces of nature. Throughout the centuries, such comparison was distorted by the patriarchal society in order to satisfy its interests, causing the oppression and the suffering of thousands of women. This process is also present in literature, which is able to reflect and perpetuate these distortions or deconstruct them, contributing to new views on this complex experience. In this work I analyze the representation of motherhood in novels written by women, more precisely, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman and Mary, a Fiction, by Mary Wollstonecraft (eighteenth-century English writer) and Fair Exchange, by Michèle Roberts (comtemporary English writer), assisted by examples in different texts of how the mother’s role has been constructed throughout time and by the contributions of the feminist studies for the deconstruction of patriarchal myths about motherhood.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, 2010. / Submitted by Eduardo Pinheiro Morbeck (eduardomorbeck@gmail.com) on 2011-06-20T23:33:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2010_PollianaCristinadeOliveira.pdf: 643580 bytes, checksum: be70c9f3b7aeb822f640a4303a3eb377 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marília Freitas(marilia@bce.unb.br) on 2011-06-21T12:22:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2010_PollianaCristinadeOliveira.pdf: 643580 bytes, checksum: be70c9f3b7aeb822f640a4303a3eb377 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-21T12:22:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2010_PollianaCristinadeOliveira.pdf: 643580 bytes, checksum: be70c9f3b7aeb822f640a4303a3eb377 (MD5) / As experiências da maternidade têm suscitado complexos sentimentos desde os mitos existentes nas primeiras sociedades, que comparavam a capacidade reprodutiva das mulheres às forças da natureza. Durante os séculos, tal comparação foi distorcida pela sociedade patriarcal para satisfazer seus interesses, causando a opressão e o sofrimento da maioria das mulheres. Esse processo está presente também na literatura, que é capaz de refletir e perpetuar essas distorções ou desconstruí-las, contribuindo para novas visões dessa complexa experiência. Neste trabalho, a partir, principalmente, das contribuições teóricas dos feminismos, analiso a representação da maternidade na obra da escritora inglesa contemporânea Michéle Roberts, com ênfase em seu romance The book of Mrs. Noah; analiso também a natureza experimental deste romance, o qual apresenta muitas inovações em sua dimensão formal. _________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / The experience of motherhood has produced complex feelings since the myths existing in the first societies, which used to compare women‘s reproductive capability to the forces of nature. Throughout the centuries, such comparison was distorted by patriarchal society in order to satisfy its interests, causing the oppression and the suffering of the majority of women. This process is also present in literature, which is able to reflect and perpetuate these distortions or deconstruct them, contributing to new views on this complex experience. In this work I analyze the representation of motherhood, especially from some feminist contributions, in the novels of the contemporary writer Michèle Roberts, especially The Book of Mrs. Noah; we also emphasize this novels‘ innovative form.

This thesis investigates the prevalence of religious themes in the work of several prominent contemporary women writers—Margaret Atwood, Michèle Roberts, Alice Walker and A.L. Kennedy. Relying on Luce Irigaray’s recent theorisations of the religious and its relationship to feminine subjectivity, this research considers the subversive potential of engaging with religious discourse through literature, and contributes to burgeoning criticism of feminist revisionary writing. The novels analysed in this thesis show, often in violent detail, that the way the religious dimension has been conceptualised and articulated enforces negative views of female sexuality, justifies violence against the body, alienates women from autonomous creative expression and paralyses the development of a subjectivity in the feminine. Rather than looking at women’s religious revision primarily as a means of asserting female authority, as previous studies have done, I argue that these writers, in addition to critiquing patriarchal religion, articulate ways of being and knowing that subvert the binary logic that dominates Western religious discourse. Chapter I contextualises this research in Luce Irigaray’s theories and outlines existing work on feminist revisionist literature. The remaining chapters offer close readings of key novels in light of these theories: Chapter II examines Atwood’s interrogation of oppositional logic in religious discourse through her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Chapter III explores two novels by Roberts that expose the violence inherent in religious discourse and deconstruct the subjection of the (female) body to the (masculine) Word. Chapters IV and V analyse the fiction of Kennedy and Walker respectively, revealing how their novels confront the religious denigration of feminine sexuality and refigure the connection between eroticism and divinity. Evident in each of these fictional accounts is a forceful critique of religious discourse, as well as an attempt to more closely reconcile foundational religious oppositions between divinity and humanity, flesh and spirit, and body and Word.