Lilith e Medeia: mulheres-pesadelo da sociedade patriarcal

Abstract

This research aims to compare the works Medea, by Euripides (2010), “The Alphabet of Ben Sira”, version provided by Eisenstein (2008), and Luz del Fuego: a bailarina do povo, by Cristina Agostinho (1994), elucidating the nightmare woman archetype of patriarchal society in literature. This archetype of nightmare woman carries a series of characteristics, she can be cruel, lascivious, infanticidal and even divine. That said, it is possible to analyze the mythological narratives identifying the profiles of the transgressor woman of the patriarchy, who contrasts and reaffirms herself in the body and in the life of the historical character Dora Vivacqua in the skin of Luz del Fuego. Arranged in five chapters, this Dissertation has comparative perspectives based on the theoretical discussions of Gerda Lerner (2019), Monique Wittig (2006), Rosie Marie Muraro (1997), Pierre Bourdieu (2012) and Jean Delumeau (2001) to analyze the history of the patriarchal system, its mechanisms, tools and discourses. Regarding the theory of mythologies, we will use Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers (1990), Martha Robles (2006), Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (2018), among others. Through the theories sewn to literary narratives, it is clear that literature speaks of the society in which it takes shape, being both descriptive and prescriptive. Thus, it is understood that mythological women, such as Medeia and Lilith, and historical women, such as Luz del Fuego, walk both ways, as literature describes them because they existed – even if it is in the form of myth – and prescribes them so that they do not exist again, due to the antagonism they provoke, oscillating between fascination and dread.