Mulheres que sabem demais: o phármakon das feiticeiras brasileiras no entresséculos

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting an examination of the witch’s presence in Brazilian literature during the turn of the centuries, focusing on the period between 1884 and 1904. Taking into account the political and social changes of the period, we analyze the importance that this figure gains in the national literature between 1865 and 1920. Our analysis takes into account, in a historical perspective, the evolution of the concept and figure of the witch in Europe and Brazil, the definition of the stereotype of witchcraft as predominantly female, and some significant occurrences of witches throughout the history of literature, requiring us an interdisciplinary approach that is built on the discussion of the constitution of the historical narrative, on the reflections about the existance of popular and scholarly cultures, on the contemporary feminist thought and on literary criticism that focuses on the characters of the text as amalgams of social, historical and psychological elements functioning within the narrative economy of each work. After territorializing our discussion under the exposed terms, we dedicate the final chapters of this work to in-depth analysis of the two most important characters of the witches period: Paula, the witch of The Slum, and Barbara, the seer of Esau and Jacob, taking as a principle of analysis the presence of a pharmakon that, before being good or bad, is the element that escapes from the general law.