BETWEEN HYSTERIA AND SILENCE: Perspectives of Gender and Madness in Jane Eyre (1847) and Carta à rainha louca(2019)"

• Grant number: 24/18118-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Débora Ballielo Barcala
• Grantee: Maria Heloisa Senatore
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The masterpiece "Jane Eyre," published in 1847, written by Charlotte Brontë, represents a major milestone in English Literature. The book tells the story of Jane Eyre, the protagonist and author, who writes the book as a dedication to the reader, sharing her own journey from childhood to marriage as an adult. Jane Eyre was discriminated against and subjected to various forms of violence throughout her life, being severely punished for her "disobedience." Sent to an institute for the "rehabilitation" of her behavior, she was "trained" to adhere to a conduct considered ideal for a woman. At the age of 18, Jane becomes a teacher for a young girl and meets her employer, Mr. Rochester, a secretly married man who falls in love with her and proposes marriage. In attempting to marry his subordinate, he reveals his marriage to his first wife, Bertha Mason, who is imprisoned in the attic of the mansion where they reside. Published in April 2019, the work Carta à Rainha Louca by Maria Valeria Rezende portrays Olinda-PE in the year 1789. The story takes place during the monarchy, a period in which women faced a patriarchal and violent Brazilian colonization system, the character Isabel das Santas Virgens was labeled as 'crazy' and 'disobedient' for not submitting to the system of injustices and the established behavioral standards for women of her time. Because she was incriminated for her supposed insanity, she was imprisoned in the Convent of the Conceição, where she wrote numerous letters to the monarch Maria I, known as the Mad Queen, reporting the violence inflicted by the Crown's men, including the lack of punishment for her crime and her abandonment in the prison. Therefore, the objective of this work is to analyze how the perception of madness is attributed to female figures in the books and how the silencing of characters Isabel and Bertha relates to an understanding of what insanity is, especially considering the power relationship existing between (male) figures of authority and gender, and the subservience and training of characters like Jane Eyre and others