A destruição do eu nas relações de poder e violência entre gerações: a vivência das personagens femininas em Corpo desfeito, de Jarid Arraes

Abstract

This dissertation examines Corpo Desfeito (2022), the debut novel by Ceará-based writer Jarid Arraes. The novel tells the story of Amanda, a girl who lives in Juazeiro do Norte with her mother, Fabiana, and her maternal grandparents, Jorge and Marlene. After Fabiana’s fatal accident, Amanda is placed under the sole care of her grandmother, who creates a cult centered on her deceased daughter through which she imposes various rules on her granddaughter that are marked by religious fanaticism and numerous instances of violence. The overall objective is to analyze the narrative construction and the power relations and violence normalized by institutions, highlighting how these forces influence the degradation and structuring of the female characters’ subjectivity. The theoretical framework is based on the contributions of Jaime Ginzburg (2012), Regina Dalcastagnè (2012), Gaston Bachelard (1974), Henri Lefebvre (2006), Michel Foucault (2014), Pierre Bourdieu (2012), Aleida Assman (2011), Judith Butler (2017), and Guacira Lopes Louro (2000), among others. Thus, the results demonstrate that, beyond her status as an autodiegetic narrator, Amanda’s voice directly influences the narrative construction by being structured around trauma and her childlike perspective, which is reflected in her perception of space and her description of hierarchies of control. It is was found that structures of domination within the family and the public sphere operate through networks of surveillance, punishment, and bodily regulation, in which religious and parental discourses are distorted to legitimize abuse and perpetuate trauma as a generational legacy. The experiences of the female characters reveal how situations of violence shape their perceptions of themselves, often leading them to reproduce the structure of domination that controls them. Even so, it is still possible to observe small acts of transgression, demonstrating that they do not passively endure this violence but take a stand against it. Regarding the integration and disintegration of the “self,” it was concluded that the trauma in Amanda’s childhood triggers a process of psychological fragmentation; it not only causes harm but also reorganizes the girl’s perception of who she is, permanently shaping her identity.