Patriarchalism and Social Criticism: “Virgem Louca, Loucos Beijos”, by Dalton Trevisan

Abstract

This article aims to understand how the narrative of Virgem louca, loucos beijos (1979) provides the representation of Brazilian patriarchal culture through aesthetic elements such as the narrator’s use of metaphors and biblical comparisons. In this regard, the use of recontextualization and mass media formulas to elaborate social criticisms are widespread. However, it is possible to notice the limitation of this reflexive spectre insofar as the characters and the narrative voice search for the return of their condition as “vampirized and ventriloquist subjects” (Waldman, 2014). Therefore, the humanity eludes them, and the prevailing impression is that of degradation. The emphasis on sexuality, on the diminished aspect of intimacy, helps to further reiterate the bestialized and hopeless place, whether for women’s emancipation or the modification of the crystallized historical structure. In this respect, materialist methodology, specially Adornian thought (Adorno, Horkheimer, 1985), becomes important to discuss the possibilities of authentically critical representation and reflect on to what extent can the patriarchy be reconsidered when there is an absence of subjects, and the textual voices enjoy an irresponsibility of emission.