O plurivocalismo de raça e gênero em “Melanctha”, de Gertrude Stein

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the inter-racial and gender elements articulated through plurivocalic discourse, in the short story “Melanctha”, part of the book Three Lives (1909), by Gertrude Stein. The main objective is to identify these voices, as representations of blackness and whiteness in order to establish the parameters that determine these relationships and, in turn, how they influence the ethnic relations represented in the narrative. Regarding the theoretical background a dialogue has been articulated between Cultural Studies ─ more precisely authors such as Woodward (2004) ─ and feminist theorists, such as Davis (2016) and hooks (2019). For the analysis of the plurivocal quality of the narrative will be followed Bakhtin's (1988) theory of plurivocalism. Regarding the critical reception of Stein´s work, will be considered the works by Rowe (2003), Hathaway, Jarab and Melnick (2003), English (2004), Abreu (2008), Daniel (2008), Will (2008), Aguiar and Queiroz (2015) and Morrison (2020). Regarding the concept of negritude, the analysis will be guided by the studies of Silva, Lago, Ramos (1999) and Munanga (2009). We concluded that, through stereotypes and the narrator's emphatic influence in using the values of whiteness in a narrative mainly composed by black characters, “Melanctha” subverts racism and transforms it into a transvestite oppression mechanism of opinions issued by black characters, when it is the narrator's opinion that is being expressed. We also conclude that based on racialized relations, “Melanctha” perpetuates racial stereotypes, but, even more, exposes the racial and gender relations of the turn of the 19th century with a subtlety that borders on its erasure.