A representação feminina em Badu (1932), de Arnaldo Tabayá

Abstract

Nowadays, the name of Arnaldo Tabayá may not be the most famous on the literary community, but on the 30’s he had been responsible for one of the main novels from that time in Brazil - Badu, which was released in 1932 and received the award of its category from Casa Machado de Assis in 1934. In the narrative, the character who gives the name to the book can be considered a representation of the female and the poor population from Rio de Janeiro, which is not immune to judgment from the society in general and the narrator-character that, even married, gets involved with the woman. Based on studies about the 1930 novel, made by Luis Bueno, and the social context from that time, it is possible to have a general perspective of Badu’s representation - a young lady, who lives in Morro da Conceição, who is black and work for herself - at a time in which women’s role was extremely delimited in literature as in life in society. The analysis will start from explicit mentioned characteristics in the novel and in specific points, like the origin of the main female character, her religious belief and the place where she lives. It is possible to say that, even though she is brought to the reader from a male perspective by a middle class man, being the one who tries to limit her and minimize her by every decision that she makes, it is possible to see Badu as a woman that is not satisfied with the limits that are put to her by society - limits that are pushed to her even by the man who she gets involved with. The decision made by the female character to put an end to her own life and to her relationship with the narrator-character in such a tragic way was a decision made by herself, giving a closure to the power that the man thought he had over her.