Power and submission in "Com Açúcar, com Afeto" and "Mulheres de Atenas"

Abstract

Modern social conduct is permeated by power relations, the roots of which go way back in time. Faced with this reality, fiction becomes an "act of transgression "(Iser, 1999), which can stimulate the reconfiguration of social roles. With this perspective, this article analyzes the aesthetic process of structuring the songs "Mulheres de Atenas" ("Women of Athens") and "Com Açúcar, com afeto" ("With sugar and affection"), by Chico Buarque, to understand the reception to the text at the time and the historic context of its production. This study — which takes into account the theoretical assumptions of Towards an Aesthetic of Reception (Jauss, 1983) — shows that, in their texture, Chico Buarque's lyrics foresaw an active reader, carefully looking for things that are not said (Eco, 1986), and at the contextual references (Cortina, 2000), and thus able to grasp the sociocultural critique that emerges from the interstices of their lyrical enunciation. Therefore, once the superficial layer has been crossed, the texts are a serious and profound analysis of female and male behaviors, both in Brazilian society at the time they were produced, and in the contemporary period.