BETWEEN SHADOW AND LIGHT: THE COMPARATIVE LITERARY REPRESENTATION OF THE CHARACTER WITH DISABILITY IN JANE EYRE (1847), BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË, AND IN THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME (1831) AND THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1869), BY VICTOR HUGO

• Grant number: 25/01994-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: January 01, 2026
• End date: September 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Daniela Mantarro Callipo
• Grantee: Yana Vieira Campos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This Project proposes the comparative analysis of four literary characters with disabilities, named as follows: Quasimodo, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831), Dea, from The man who laughs (1869), both novels by Victor Hugo, and Edward Rochester and Bertha Mason, from Jane Eyre (1847), written by Charlotte Brontë. In order to analyse the four it is necessary, firstly, to delimit what is a disability according to a most current and inclusive concept and also to briefly remind some examples of the treatment given to a person withdisability, more specifically in the centuries in which the stories take place, so that it becomesmore evident the relation of representation that exists between the character and the personwithin the space-time context in which the works were written and also in which the plot ofthe stories take place. The comparative analysis of the character will have as critical basisSamoyault (2008), Beth Brait (2017) and Antonio Candido (1995;2014), being the reflection onthe humanization in literature, formulated by the last one, the great catalyst for the elaboration of this project, due to the need of representing traces and different experiences as a way of humanizing them. Finally, it is aimed to analyse the four characters according to those theoretical considerations and to compare them concerning their importance in the plot and the view of the other characters about them, whether it is ableist or not, whether they are received by their counterparts or are simply demonized, leading to a total exclusion. (AU)