Tudo é rio : um manifesto político e estético contra o desamor

Abstract

This study explores the novel Tudo é rio (2014), by Carla Madeira, through a feminist critical lens, analyzing the intricate interplay between love, power, and corporeality. The study investigates how the characters Venâncio, Dalva, and Lucy both reproduce and resist patriarchal structures, drawing on the theoretical framework of bell hooks (2021), Pierre Bourdieu (1982), Paul B. Preciado (2019), Elódia Xavier (2021), Ferrão (2017–2018), and Silvana Goellner (2015). Using a qualitative literary analysis, the research focuses on the novel’s non-linear narrative and poetic language, examining the depiction of the female body as a site of desire and agency. Chapter I revisits the literary tradition of love, engaging with E. M. Forster and Virginia Woolf to contrast romantic idealizations with the concept of disruptive and ethical love. Chapter II delves into patriarchal power in intimate relationships, particularly through Venâncio’s journey, and analyzes how Dalva and Lucy subvert conventional roles, reclaiming affection through autonomy, ethics, and symbolic empowerment. The study concludes that Tudo é rio not only exposes the normalization of violence in affective ties but also reimagines love as a political and aesthetic act of resistance, contributing to contemporary debates on gender, eroticism, and subjectivity in literature.