As relações de gênero, poder e violência sobre as mulheres indígenas na obra Um rio sem fim, de Verenilde Santos Pereira

Abstract

Assuming that literature serves the function of promoting political and social discourse, this research aims to analyze the intersections of gender, power, and violence experienced by several female characters in the novel Um rio sem fim by the Afro-Indigenous writer Verenilde Pereira, based on the 1998 edition. For a long time, Brazilian history has portrayed the relationships between Indigenous peoples and colonizers predominantly through a Eurocentric lens. This narrative has fostered an imaginary filled with stereotyped and subservient Indigenous women. In contrast, Verenilde’s novel challenges this imposed subservience by adopting the perspective of Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous women, as well as through the viewpoints of other female characters, highlighting the enduring marks of Eurocentric discourse. In the narrative, woven with a testimonial character, the author focuses the story on four girls—Rosa Maria, Maria Assunção, Maria Índia, and Maria Rita—who are involved in and succumb to the relationships of gender, power, and violence in the post-colonial setting, particularly in the Amazon. The analysis of gender, power, and violence will be conducted in conjunction with an examination of narrative voices, temporality, and spatiality that shape the stories of Maria Assunção, Rosa Maria, and Laura Dimas, while also engaging with the trajectories of Mariana and Sister Isabel. To examine the narrative aspects, this study will draw on references from literary and linguistic fields, while the investigation of social issues will be grounded in historical, sociological, philosophical, and psychological frameworks. This analysis allows us to understand literature as a tool for social denunciation, as the author constructs a critique that subverts the Eurocentric logic through her work. Through the mastery of language, the narrative elements transcend the colonial prism, and the voices that emerge throughout the story offer a decolonial perspective on the gendered power relations and violence that have historically impacted—and continue to impact—the lives of Amazonian women.