Writing as a counterpoint to silences: notes about As netas da Ema

Abstract

This article analyzes the representations of the feminine through the characters presente in the novel As netas da Ema, published by Eugenia Zerbini in 2003, as well as the fight against diferente forms of silencing. The literary production under analysis contributes to democratization of literature by approaching the experiences of women over the generations, with an emphasis on issues relevant to the category of women, such as violence and the body, problematizing themes such as pregnancy, motherhood, menopause, rape and aging, and inserting women into the historical discourse by thematizing the period of the Brazilian military dictatorship and the consequences that the hardships of that period left. Thus, we can understand As netas da Ema as an attempt to combat different silencing: the silencing that permeates the period of the dictatorship, and also the silencing of women, who for decades were not heard, both in the social field and in the literary field.