Women and the backlandes in Rachel de Queiroz's O Quinze

Abstract

The goal of this article is to discuss the representations of the wilderness and the women in the novel O Quinze, by Rachel de Queiroz. Starting from the Roger Chartier's concept of representation and cultural history, the paper seeks to understand the discussions that Rachel de Queiroz built in her novel, thinking of nature and women as ambiguous characters, between permanencies and ruptures, traditions and modernities. The nature seen as bucolic space and of revitalizing force and also as space of delay and primitivism. Women as avant-garde and determined, but still stuck to the machismo and misogynist thoughts that surrounded them.