Maria Moura, a woman outside the law

Abstract

In Memorial de Maria Moura, the last book written in 1992 by Brazilian author Rachel de Queiroz, we are witness to the creation of a society of outlaws under the mandate of the woman whose name is also the novel’s title. Latin American literature about rural pre-modern bandits is dominated by men in both its characters and its authors, and thus comes the particular significance of this text, in which we encounter a female bandit written by a woman. I approach the novel in order to analyze how and why Maria Moura creates this outlaw community and to examine what happens to the bodies that power inhabits. I argue that, given the consequences suffered by Moura after obtaining so much respect and power, the text suggests a critique in terms of how gender –and the way we understand it–, intervenes, limits and determines us.