Abstract
The realist novel, more than other modes of fictional representation, relates to the historical conjoncture where is produced and which it focuses. By considering that condition, this paper investigates and compares the novels A mulher que fugiu de Sodoma (1931), by Brazilian writer José Geraldo Vieira, and Ana Paula (1938), by Portuguese novelist Joaquim Paço d’Arcos, regard an important issue of their world: a marriage wreck due a vile behaviour of husbands and the resulting role played by wifes. Based on studies by Erich Auerbach and Roger Chartier about representation and on investigations by Mary del Priore, Anália Cardoso Torres and Irene Vaquinhas about women and marriage, literary narratives are critically approached, considering also their historic inserction. Whereas Vieira presents the agency of Lúcia, who leaves her husband, Paço d’Arcos builds Ana Paula as a wife who stays with her spouse untill his breakdown.
Keywords:
women’s condition at the 1930s; José Geraldo Vieira; Joaquim Paço d’Arcos.