CONTRADIÇÕES DA CARNE

A MULHER E O NEGRO EM DOIS MOMENTOS DO NATURALISMO BRASILEIRO

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse two authors – Júlio Ribeiro and his work: A carne and Adelaide Carraro and her work: Submundo da sociedade, two novels that epitomize distinct periods of Brazilian Naturalism (both works censured under the accusation of pornography) representing the prism of the characterizations of the woman and the black person by them presented. We focus on the images of feminine and black characters presented by those novels discussing whether they corroborate the assumption that Naturalism is essentially conservative, that it softens the conflicts which pervade the Brazilian society or – as we believe (this is our hypothesis) – the works of Ribeiro and Carraro represent a contradictory posture regarding questions as the role of women and blacks in the society – reflecting, therefore, contradictions and hesitations which are characteristic, until today, of the way Brazilian society address those themes.