BEASTLY FURY: THE REPRESENTATION OF MOTHERHOOD IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DICTATORSHIP IN THE POEMS “CAÇADA” AND “PERGUNTAS AO FILHO PRÓDIGO” BY LARA DE LEMOS

Abstract

In this article, I propose a reflection on the representation and lived experience of motherhood during the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship. The main objective is to examine how the poems Caçada (1981) and Perguntas ao filho pródigo(1986), by Lara de Lemos, function as testimonies to the adversities imposed on women-mothers within this context of political oppression. The methodology employed is an interpretive literary analysis of the poems, focusing on poetic imagery, lexical choices, and formal structures. Discursive analysis procedures situated in context will be mobilized to observe how the poems engage with State violence and forms of female resistance. The theoretical framework includes gender theories developed by Gerda Lerner and Michelle Perrot, studies on dictatorship and women’s literature by Regina Zilberman and Evelyn Mello, as well as research on the intersection of gender and motherhood under authoritarianism, such as the works of Cristina Scheibe Wolff and Carolina Rios Costa. The analysis seeks to demonstrate how Lara de Lemos’s poetry constructs profound meanings regarding maternal experience under oppression, thereby validating these poems as documents of resistance and as repositories of memory of women’s struggles against the dictatorship.