Scholars in Portuguese

Some papers recently published in Portuguese/Brazilian scholar journals:

Villette de Charlotte Brontë: uma tentativa em direção à visibilidade
Carla Alexandra Ferreira
Revista de Letras, Vol. 2, No 2 (2009)

Abstract
In this article, I aim to show how the novel Villette reproduces and, at the same time, tries to construct a set of new ideas concerning women’s position in society. Thus, I intend to demonstrate that gender category is a historical and cultural construct and not a natural condition.

O erro trágico de Cathy em O morro dos ventos uivantes, de Emily Brontë
Daise Lilian Fonseca Dias
Ângulo, No 117/8 (2009)

Abstract
The objective of this article is to analyze Cathy’s tragic mistake in Wuthering Heights (1847). The tragic transcends any idea of form, for it is a concept that is not limited to the tragedies as literary genres, and it is present in the novel. In fact, it exists before its representation in literature. In her only novel, Emily Brontë makes use of the English social reality to criticize the social factors that influence the actions of men and women of her time through her protagonists in their discomfort with the social rules, and their own limits to transgress them. The novel denounces the condition of women in a patriarchal and imperial universe that condemns them to a tragic destiny, being it voluntary or not.

Entendendo o sistema educacional vitoriano : realidade e ficção em Jane Eyre e Oliver Twist 
Ribas, Marcos Maciel
Advisor Maggio, Sandra Sirangelo
Date 2010
Degree Graduação Institution Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Instituto de Letras.

Abstract:
Works of art are always in exchanging process with the society in which they are produced. The author’s real world is the source to project and to create a fictional world in literature. Conversely, the effect promoted by literature on readers has potential to change conceptions and moral values. Following this constant dialectical process, cultural traces are defined, forming the national literatures which delight us and tell us about the peoples that created those works of art. The aim of this monograph is to show examples of this exchange of influences between literary production and reality, using two classical novels in Victorian literature, Oliver Twist (1838), by Charles Dickens, and Jane Eyre (1847), by Charlotte Brontë, to illustrate how this occurs. This monograph comments about relevant aspects of the social structure and educational system of the Victorian Age through the analysis of elements that are common to both novels. Emphatic criticism about moral and educational patterns adopted by the Victorian society is found in both texts. These critiques occur through the command of narrative voices, created by the authors, which expose and contest, often with irony, their own context. This work also investigates characteristics of both protagonists’ development, as well the authors’ approaches to develop proposed themes. Fears, wishes and intentions present in the subtext, as well the negotiations promoted by the authors to avoid critics and a direct conflict with devices of social censure, reveal an important aspect of the Victorian world. I hope this monograph can be useful to trigger reflection about the British educational system and its social structure, in order to identify matters that are still pertinent in our current school environment, even in our own Brazilian society, in the 21st Century.