Maidens, flirts and seducers

The objectification of women’s bodies in the musical works of Chiquinha Gonzaga

Bibliographic Data

ID12898232
AuthorsEliane Regina Crestani Tortola (0000-0003-0588-2471, Universidade Federal do Paraná, corresponding author), Larissa Michelle Lara (0000-0001-9210-6360, Universidade Estadual de Maringá)
Year2020
Volume14
Issue4
Pages409-428
Publication date2020-12-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGender and Language (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1747-6321 • E-ISSN: 1747-633X
PublisherEquinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/genl.39682
OpenAlexW3115672221
LanguageEN
References cited24

This paper discusses the objectification of women’s bodies in the discursive regularities present in the musical compositions of Chiquinha Gonzaga, a late nineteenth and early twentieth century composer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Guided by Foucauldian discourse analysis, the paper argues that enunciations emerging from Gonzaga’s songs are triggered by the devices of sexuality, racial whitening, resistance, confession and marriage. Based in a musical discourse that references women with terms such as maiden, seducer, flirt, tasty and mulatto, these enunciations are demarcated by hierarchies of gender, ethnicity and social class. Even though the enunciations under investigation are associated with a particular musical era in Rio de Janeiro’s history, they are not far removed from dominant enunciations about women in contemporary Brazil. This suggests the difficulty of breaking away from representations that subjugate women, particularly when the patriarchal power relations that enabled these representations remain prominent

Art · Confession (law · Epistemology · Human sexuality · Literature · Musical · Objectification · Power (physics · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · History · Music History and Culture · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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