Almas que se regeneram: representações sobre a prostituição na literatura de José de Alencar, 1858-1868

Abstract

This dissertation aims to understand the process of construction of the prostitute character in the books As azas de um anjo (1858), Lucíola (1862) and A Expiação by José de Alencar. It also intended to comprehend the causes that motivated the author to represent this type of woman so differently in each of these books. For this purpose, the books of José de Alencar were used like a source, as well as the literary criticisms about them present in brazilians newspapers, like: Correio Mercantil, Semana Illustrada, Constitucional and Diário do Rio de Janeiro. In this study, articles of the nineteenth-century social medicine were used too, because this knowlodge area was also interested in questions related to prostitution. Using this kind of material was possible to compare the conceptions about harlotry existing in literary and medical circles. The selected sources of Annaes Brasilienses de Medicina were: Duas palavras sobre a educação moral da mulher by Nicoláo Joaquim Moreira (1868), Da prostituição no Rio de Janeiro by Luiz Correa de Azevedo (1869), A mulher perante o médico by Costa Ferraz (1872) and Memoria sobre as medidas a adoptar contra a prostituição no paiz by João Francisco de Souza (1875). The analysis of this sources was made using the concept of representation by Chartier (2002) and the methodology of Discourses Analysis of Orlandi (2005). A bibliographic review was also carried out from authors such as França (1999), Verona (2013), Engel (2004), Faria (1987), Aguiar (1984), Perrot (2003), Martins (2004) and others.