Coisa de menina, coisa de menino: representações de gênero nas obras infantojuvenis de Ana Maria Machado

Abstract

This dissertation investigates contemporary texts that may propose resistance to patriarchal hegemonic discourse in gender representations in Children`s Literature. We will analyze selected texts of the author Ana Maria Machado in the perspective of finding discourses that aim to help in the breakdown of male and female representations, within the dichotomous and excluding logic considered as hegemonic. We will try to address how the female characters are constructed by the author and if the discourse offered helps to deconstruct the binary stereotypes between the genres. The title "Coisa de Menina, Coisa de Menino" is a reference to the separation between the two sexes, which ends up attributing to each one of them strict and exclusive conducts. To analyze the theme, object of this study, first, we will do a small approach on the concepts of childhood and children's literature. Secondly, we will conceptualize the term Gender, evidencing the social and historical character of its construction. In the end, we will discuss the importance of Children's Literature in allowing the child's contact with models that value plurality as threads for the construction of their identities.