Gênero, memória e agência feminina em Torto arado, de Itamar Vieira Junior

Abstract

This research, centered on the relationships between gender, memory, and female agency, analyzes the novel Torto arado by Itamar Vieira Junior based on three objectives: problematizing the relationships between gender, narration, and memory within the work; analyzing how the agency of female characters contributes to processes of emancipation; and examining the strategies of resistance constructed in the face of the gender, racial, and class oppressions that permeate the narrative. The study is grounded in frameworks from post-colonial criticism, gender studies, Brazilian Black feminism, and theories of cultural and collective memory. Methodologically, the research began with a bibliographic survey of academic databases to map the state of the art regarding the novel and identify under-explored critical gaps. Subsequently, an interpretive analysis of the female characters and the work's three narrative voices was conducted, observing how individual and collective memories articulate experiences of belonging, resistance, and agency. The results demonstrate that the female characters devise forms of confrontation capable of challenging historically entrenched colonial, patriarchal, and racial structures. In this context, memory functions not merely as a record of the past but as a political and symbolic practice that preserves identities, strengthens resistance processes, and enables the claiming of spaces for existence, voice, and agency. The study concludes that the interplay between memory and agency constitutes a fundamental axis of the narrative, broadening the understanding of female representations in Torto arado and highlighting their potential to challenge historical hegemonies and affirm alternative possibilities of existence.