On female silence in the short story "Telhado quebrado com gente morando dentro", by Jarid Arraes

Abstract

The short story "Telhado quebrado com gente morando dentro", present in the book Redemoinho em dia quente, by the writer Jarid Arraes, tells the story of two sisters who struggle to break the barriers of silencing, patriarchy and sexual abuse. These barriers, according to Pierre Bourdieu (2010), are formed by symbolic violence, which impose relations of domination in order to create power structures. Elódia Xavier (1998) explains that patriarchy imposes masculine organization, structures, customs and social standards so that they are propagated as normally, stipulated by laws or from cultural actions assimilated by the masculine collective. Thus, as Heleieth Saffioti (1999) points out, between physical and symbolic violence, actions are always marked by brutality and psychological pressure towards the victim. Considering these aspects, the objective was to analyze silencing, the domain of patriarchy and violence represented in the story based of the studies of Pierre Bourdieu (2010), Eurídice Figueiredo (2020), Heleieth Saffioti (1999), Elódia Xavier (1998), Lia Machado (2006), Claude Dubar (2009), Simone de Beauvoir (2019), Judith Butler (2016; 2017) and Gayatri Spivak (2010). Through analytical reflection, it is concluded that the dominant silencing in the story is a reflection of the lack of voice and knowledge and the prejudice present in the relationships between the women themselves, and the woman with the world and with her own conscience. It determines the removal not only of two sisters, the main characters, but the removal of women from their rights, from their freedom and consequently from their security.