Lesbianidade e intertextualidade: um estudo do conto "Madame de Z", de Délia

Abstract

This article aims to study the short story “Madame de Z” (1892), by Brazilian writer Délia, pseudonym of Maria Benedita Bormann (1853-1895). Published in the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Paiz, the narrative – in the first person – tells the story of the relationship with traces of lesbianity between the protagonist and the title character Mme. de Z. With the Brazilian rural environment as its diegetic space, the text uses quotes from scholars of aesthetics and mythology to narrate a forbidden contact between two women, in what may be the first short story with a lesbian theme published in Brazil. This narrative strategy allows for a theoretical dialogue with the concept of intertextuality developed by Kristeva based on her studies of Bakhtinian thought. It is interesting to observe how the explicit and implicit use of other works can give the narrative characteristics of a carnivalesque text.