Abstract

Critics of Clarice Lispector often identify feminist themes relating to voice, gender, and the male gaze in her creative work. Lispector’s collection of short stories Laços de família demonstrates the way patriarchal society sets limits on the identity of women. Laura Mulvey’s concept of “the male gaze” provides a useful tool for understanding how men marginalize, objectify, and subordinate women through visual regimes of control, yet Mulvey’s concept does not fully encapsulate the scope of male oppression explored in Laços de família. In fact, Lispector draws upon a variety of senses and metaphors related to consumption through a mode I call food femininities to display how men consume their female counterparts in society. More specifically, Lispector’s collection Laços de família invokes, presents, and uses food, food imagery, food vocabulary, and food metaphors as a central way of defining gender roles determined by society and performed in accordance with the normative standards dictated by said society.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Spanish and Portuguese

Rights

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

Date Submitted

2020-04-08

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd11569

Keywords

food feminism, objectification, the male gaze, consumption, gender roles

Language

english

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