Challenging the literary canon: Lésbia and the nineteenth-century novel of female authorship

Abstract

In brazilian belle époque, many women who have dedicated themselves to the craft of letters succeeded recognition among their peers men. Lésbia, by Maria Benedita Bormann, is a groundbreaking work, being a Künstlerroman who brings up the woman writer in her journey for social recognition. This paper sets out some of these questions, such as the importance of authorship and a frame of reference for women who start writing and find a canon established, highly unfavorable criticism and great prejudice. The feminist criticism (gynocritics), by the fact that carried out the rereading of canonical works, searched for books written by women and even proposed a kind of rewriting of culture, provides fundamental tools for understanding these pioneering women. Lésbia is a work that, fictionally, anticipates some of the major issues that are part of the agenda of feminist criticism.