The hysteria in The Flesh, of Julio Ribeiro

Abstract

This paper analyzes the novel The flesh of Julio Ribeiro, from the perspective of freudian psychoanalysis. The book, a naturalistic novel published in 1888, criticizes the formation of gender roles in nineteenth-century culture and anticipates psychoanalytic ideas about sexuality and hysteria, which allows an interesting approach between literature and psychoanalysis. The analysis is focused on the development of the two central characters, Lenita and Manduca. We observed in Lenita a transformation of hysteria, first it appears like a illness, after to transgression and thence like a critique of sexuality and gender roles. The male anxieties and conflicts are marked by silence, a discursive failure which does not allow psychopathological ratings. At the end the hysteric Lenita interrupts a long cycle of compulsive repetition and Manduca linearly stay mute and succumbs. Returning to the beginning of psychoanalysis observe the same phenomenon: the difficulty, admitted by Freud, in exposing male hysteria.

Keywords

• histeria
• psicanálise
• literatura