"I was never anything but a woman of the sea": as manifestações do patriarcado nas vidas de Hana e Emiko na obra "White Chrysanthemum" (2018), de Mary Lynn Bracht

Abstract

Literature is a privileged space for exposing oppressive social structures. Even through fiction, literary narrative opens space for confrontation with dominant values, allowing for the questioning of consolidated and reproduced norms. In this sense, the work White Chrysanthemum (2018), written by Mary Lynn Bracht, goes beyond describing a period of Eastern history; instead, it helps to highlight the consequences of the patriarchal system that take root in various spheres of women's lives, going far beyond the fields of war. In this context, this research aims to answer the following guiding question: In what ways is patriarchy manifested in the lives of Hana and Emiko in Mary Lynn Bracht's White Chrysanthemum (2018), from the perspective of feminist studies? In order to answer this question, the following general objective was established: to investigate the ways in which patriarchy manifests itself in the lives of Hana and Emiko, in Mary Lynn Bracht's White Chrysanthemum (2018), from the perspective of feminist studies. To achieve the general objective, the following specific objectives were established: to discuss the theoretical assumptions of feminist studies, with an emphasis on the concept of patriarchy; to identify patriarchal manifestations in the family, physical and psychological spheres of the sisters; and to explain the patriarchal manifestations experienced by Hana and Emiko. In order to achieve these objectives, a bibliographical research was conducted, with a qualitative approach, exploratory nature, and interpretivist character, based on authors such as Elsa Dorlin (2021), Heleieth I. B. Saffioti (2015), Lucia Osana Zolin (2009), Simone de Beauvoir (2009 [1949]), among others. The analyses revealed how the normalization of violence, the silencing of victims, and the objectification of the female body operate as mechanisms of domination. Bracht's work denounces not only a historical episode, but also the universality and adaptability of patriarchy, which reinvents itself in different contexts, perpetuating the oppression of women.