Abstract

One year after publishing Úrsula (1860), Maria Firmina dos Reis (Brazil’s first female novelist) published Gupeva, a novella that acts as a continuation of José de Santa Rita Durão’s Caramurú: Poema épico do descubrimento da Bahia (1781). Gupeva depicts the ultimately tragic love between Épica, an indigenous woman, and Gastão, a French sailor. The novella was published twice more during Reis’s lifetime—once in 1863, with minimal orthographic changes, and again in 1865, this time with quite drastic modifications. The editors of Echo da Juventude, where the 1865 version was published, acknowledged these changes by asking readers to be "indulgentes para as lacunas, que por ventura encontrem." This thesis, in the form of a genetic critique, explores these lacunas, focusing on how this third version—the one most readily accessible and republished today—contains alterations and omissions that result in the female indigenous characters’ further invisibility. This study performs a historical rereading of Reis’s text and ultimately encourages the reading of Gupeva’s original publication.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Spanish and Portuguese

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2024-04-25

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13656

Keywords

Maria Firmina dos Reis, Gupeva, female, indigenous

Language

english

Download

Share

COinS