The feminine look game in "Minha gente" by Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

This essay aims to cover the game of perception in the story “Minha Gente”, Sagarana (1946), from the feminine point of view of Maria Irma. We believe that in her interpersonal relationships - family/business, friendship, love - the character exerts a subtle articulation of pieces, to be verisimilar with a strong lexicon in the story (that of chess), that aims for her personal interest as well as for her family/social interests. With this trait Maria Irma approaches some of the mythical figures of the Western culture. Sly and cunning, she demonstrates a subjectivity of gender, which is partially distinct from the one usually learned in the patriarchal tradition, marked by a greater submission
of the woman. However, the seduction game that is revealed in this narrative aims at maintaining and preserving male hegemony and the patriarchal politics. In the proposal defended here,Maria Irma can represent the tension between the progress and the withdrawal of the female gender in Rosa’s fiction, oscillating between stating her desire and ensuring the familiar status quo.