Black, poor, peripheral and pregnant: criminal motherhood in Clara dos Anjos, by Lima Barreto

Abstract

The body of the black woman has long represented the imaginary place of gender violence, where this fruit-like woman, “edible” and “violable”, remains in an imaginary permeated by a stereotypical representation in society. This paper presents a theoretical discussion about the role of the black woman in the post-abolitionist 19th century society, whose slave-owning and possessive vision was still quite evident, as well as about her body, virginity and motherhood, in the work Clara dos Anjos, by the pre-modernist author Lima Barreto. The present study, of a bibliographic and theoretical review nature, primarily aims to analyze the role of the protagonist Clara dos Anjos and the violence she is subjected to. This violence includes defloration and unwanted pregnancy, which are a result of her poor, humble background and her skin color. Her aggressor, Cassi Jones, is a white man of a more elitist background, and the abuse he commits is reinforced by his family's attitude. By discussing these points, the paper seeks to highlight the maladies of a society in which the Black woman's body was historically devalued and regarded as a worthless object.