REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMANHOOD IN SERIDÓ: CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AND DISCOURSES ON FEMALE DEFENDANTS (1874–1891)
female defendants; representations; sertões; Women's history.
Our study investigates representations of female defendants in Caicó, in the Seridó sertão (backlands), between 1874 and 1891. We identified our subjects within the criminal case files of the Caicó judicial district, held by the CERES Historical Documentation Laboratory (Labordoc). Our sources were examined through discourse analysis and in dialogue with Joan Scott’s (2017) concepts of gender; we also engaged with the concept of the sertão through the studies of Antonio Carlos Robert Moraes (2003) and Erivaldo Fagundes Neves (2012), while analyzing representations based on the contributions of Roger Chartier (2002). By addressing this theme, we aim to contribute to Women's History—specifically to scholarship on female offenders and the nature of sertão identities. Furthermore, the research investigates the multiple voices of legal agents in the criminal proceedings that shaped representations of the feminine. The goal is to understand how the feminine was forged within gender relations linked to the constructs of the nineteenth-century judicial framework, demonstrating how women were characterized and how errors and transgressions were contained. To this end, we utilize the 1830 Criminal Code, illustrating the workings of trials through the voices of legal professionals.