THE FAT AS SHE IS: fat character's identity in Portuguese language literature
Languages. Comparative literature. Identity. Fat woman.
With literary research traits, this work aims to analyze and synthesize aspects that shape the identity of fat female characters in 2 books of contemporary Portuguese language literature, the children's book A chata que gorda by Regina Drummond published in 2005 and the novel A Gorda by Isabela Figueiredo published in 2018. The choice for this theme takes into account the importance of investigating the literary representation of a marginalized and stigmatized group, fat women, in contemporary society, from the initial experiences as a child to the experiences as adults. In the research, we sought to focus attention on the fat female figure represented in literature, thus first starting a journey on reflections that mark feminist thinking within Portuguese language literature, whether through criticism or caricatures of these characters contained in classic books. Complementing with analyzes of studies related to the transdisciplinary theme of body image, fatness, fat bodies, obesity and fatphobia present in different spaces and contexts of contemporary society. The research continued by investigating the authors of the two books, raising the critical fortune of their works and public information about their lives that are related to the theme dealt with in these writings. Subsequently, we tried to analyze the role of fat characters in the selected books and synthesize the formative aspects of fat identity, aiming to identify the cultural and corporeality issues that are reflected in the creation.