Abstract

“Female” and “male” still function as central – and opposed – categories in the cognitive organization of the human, despite all the problematization and the attempts to overcome them which have taken place in different disciplines, particularly in the last decades. It is therefore important to inquire into the history of this resilience, as part of the effort to think the fully human as a single and emancipatory category.

While women are plural, the feminine, on the other hand, is traditionally defined as the “Other” of the human, a radical Altirity which has the masculine as its norm and measure. Though this paradigm roots can be found in the canon of literature and philosophy, it branchs out and multiply in all discourses - disciplinary and everyday ones – which, in turn, are translated into the cultural and social practices of contemporary cultures.

An important part of this Alterity is constructed by the demonization of women who transgress the limits imposed on them by patriarchal imaginary, be it by the practice of acts called “unnatural” – such as the murder of spouses or of children - or simply by the exercise of power within the polis. The body, or more precisely, the power of an evil sexuality (female), represented as opposed to Reason and Law (male), lies at the center of these narratives, which ascribe these women with a “nature” lying outside culture.

Starting from actual examples from recent history in connection with literary archetypes, this seminar will seek to discuss the persistence of the processes of demonization of women, our collective complicity in their reproduction, the role of counter-narratives and the usefulness of including demonized women in a female line which claims for itself the fully human.

Bio note

Adriana Bebiano  is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies and an assistant Professor at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra, where she coordinates the Doctoral Programme in Feminist Studies.
She holds a PhD on English Literature.  Her current research interests include Feminist Studies, Irish Studies and Compared Cultural Studies. Recent published essays relevant for the issues raised in this seminar: “Engendering the Nation: Irish Women and Nationalism”(São Paulo: Humanitas, 2011) and “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to know: the Stories of Chicago May and Eliza Lynch” (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2011) and  “Cicatrizes e feridas: a ficção contemporânea perante o passado” (Coimbra: CES/ Almedina, 2013), essays included in collective books of essays.  To be publisehd soon, by Tinta-da-china,  “Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: a teoria como prática de vida”, in the book  Correntes do Pensamento Crítico Contemporâneo.

Articles up for discussion

• Hutcheon, Linda; Hutcheon, Michael (2003), “O corpo perigoso", Revista Estudos Feministas, 11(1).
• Bebiano, Adriana (2009), "Da vida das mulheres infames. A história segundo Emma Donoghue",  Anglo-Saxónica Revista do Centro de Estudos Anglísticos da Universidade de Lisboa, Série II, No. 27, pp.17-32.
   

[Those who wish to participate and previously read the article up for discussion should send an email to gw@ces.uc.pt]