Josefina Álvares de Azevedo - emancipação feminina, imprensa e dramaturgia: do voto feminino aos companheiros do sol

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the trajectory of Josefina Álvares de Azevedo (1851-1913), a playwright, journalist, writer, teacher, and pioneer of feminism in Brazil, addressing her work in the women's and feminist press, as well as her contribution to the emancipation of women in nineteenth-century Brazil. The research focuses on two of her theatrical works: O Voto Feminino, her only widely recognized play, and Os Companheiros do Sol, a work scarcely discussed in academic circles and whose authorship is questioned because it is a translation into Portuguese. The analysis of O Voto Feminino reveals how Azevedo used theater as a tool for political protest, satirizing male resistance to women's suffrage and proposing the creation of new social roles for women in the public sphere. The discursive analysis of the play highlights the author's strategy of creating gendered forms of terms such as "deputy” and "senator," challenging the prevailing patriarchal language. Regarding Os Companheiros do Sol, the research carries out an investigation with primary sources, looking for traces of the play in contemporary press. The analysis of the original French text, Les Compagnons du Soleil, by Paul de Jay, and the few Brazilian references enables a discussion of Azevedo’s possible intervention in the authorship, considering the nuances of translation, and both faithful and loose adaptation within the theatrical context. The play reveals a subtle but scathing critique of patriarchal structures and the exploitation of women as a currency of exchange, especially through the character Diana de Monge. Contextualizing Azevedo's production in the historical-socialscenario of the nineteenth century, the dissertation examinesthe intersection between press, education and gender, and the struggle of women to gain access to education and political rights. To this end, the research is based on feminist theories, studies on memory and power, as well as concepts of translation and theatrical adaptation. It also addresses the historical silencing of women in Brazilian literature and theater, using Walter Benjamin's concepts of "aura" and "trace", as well as Georges Didi-Huberman and Sara Rojo’s idea of "images" and "firefly images", to understand the resistance and survival of silenced memories.