RITA BAIANA’A MALANDRAGEM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHARACTER’S EROTISM AND VOLUBILITY AND THE ROOTS OF SLAVERY LEGACY

Abstract

The article aims to analyze Rita Baiana’s character development in O Cortiço (1890), especially regarding the common features with the “malandro” figure in brazilian literature. Based on the profile set by Candido (1970) in Dialética da malandragem and the modulations to this profile, presented by Otsuka (2007), it is possible to perceive “malandragem” as a social phenomenom triggered by slavery’s system, and also adds to an eroticizing factor when related to the female characters. Thus perceiving Rita Baiana as a “malandra” is noticing her role among other women in the narrative and how the narrator’s voice denotes an ambivalence between racism and desire in the character’s development.