Patriarchy Devoured: a Reading of “Esses Lopes” by João Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

Starting from a perspective that articulates literature and society, the purpose of this text is to analyze the literary figuration of the Brazilian patriarchy in the short story “Estes Lopes”, from Tutameia, by João Guimarães Rosa. Patriarchy understood as a power structure that mixes the family and the social dimensions, appears in Colonial Brazil and takes up other forms, according to the demands of modernity. “Estes Lopes” presents patriarchy from the point of view of a woman who kills violent husbands. The means by which she commits the murders exposes the historical role of women in a patriarchal society. The protagonist's transgressive posture is symbolically expressed in devouring, an image that will combine, at the same time, the power of the word and the homemade artifices. This article exposes some notations achieved in the master's research that investigates the same theme in two other short stories: “Nada e a nossa condição”, from Primeiras Estórias, and “A volta do marido pródigo”, from Sagarana.