Subjects of Confession, Objects of Desire: (Dis)engaging Constructs of Sex, Power and Sin in Eça de Queirós's "O Crime do Padre Amaro"
2003; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 19; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/port.2003.0016
ISSN2222-4270
Autores Tópico(s)Cultural, Media, and Literary Studies
ResumoSubjects ofConfession, ObjectsofDesire: (Dis)engaging Constructs ofSex,PowerandSinin Eça deQueirós'sO Crime do FadreAmaro KATHRYN BISHOP-SANCHEZ Confessingthe NineteenthCentury Generally acclaimedbythecritical establishment as thenovelthatbest charts Eça de Queirós'sliterary aesthetic development through rigorously sustained naturalist techniques tomorepoignant caricatural procedures, O Crimedo PadreAmarohasmerited vastcritical attention inregard tothe problematic circumstances surrounding itspublication, theconflating of thedifferent versions, and thesatiricalattackthatit directs againstthe customs ofthetime andthepowerofa corrupt Church. AsReisandCunha stateintheintroduction to their critical editionofthetext,'O Crimedo PadreAmaropermaneceu, na nossahistoria literaria, comoobraásperamente estigmatizada pelaintensidade da sua crítica anti-clerical'.1 Indeed, theanti-clerical aspects ofthenovelarecentral toEça's critical representationof a societydrivenbymaterial valuesand outwardly sustainedby religious ritual.2 Thoughthepractices oftheclergy arebyno meanssolely responsible fortheills of society, theseare themoresthatEça vividly foregrounds in O Crime,withparticular emphasison the act of the confession.Amongthe ecclesiasticritualsdepictedin the novel the confession is emblematic ofthecontrol exerted bytheCatholicpriests in andthrough a 'clos(et)edspaceofdisclosure andconcealment'.3 Throughout thenoveltheconfessor represents 'a probingforcewhosepanoptic powers surpass thephysical boundaries ofa confessional booth',extending topublicandprivate realms, from a one-on-one personal leveltopolitical anddomestic circles.4 Byconveying themaincharacter Ameliaas a sexually marked womanwithin a gendered andsexualizeddiscourse ofdesireand transgression, theactoftheconfession conveys theideologicalconstructionsof gendered powerand privilege, and disclosesthematerialand 1 Eça de Queirós, O Crimedo PadreAmaro,ed. byCarlos Reis and Maria do Rosàrio Cunha (Lisbon:INCM, 2000),p. 29,n. 38.Allsubsequentpage references inthetextaretothisedition. Joäo Jose Cochofel,'Anticlericalismo', in Grande dicionarioda literatura portuguesae de teoria literaria,ed. by Joäo José Cochofel (Lisbon: IniciativasEditoriais,1977), pp. 32.3-42. (P.-339)Susan David Berstein, ConfessionalSubjects.Revelationsof Genderand Powerin Victorian Literature and Culture(NC: University of NorthCarolina Press,1997),p. 1. Bersteinborrows FrancesBartkowski's expression'clos(et)edspace oftheconfessional discourse'from'Epistemic Driftin Foucault',in Feminism and Foucault,ed. byIreneDiamond and Lee Quinby (Boston: Northeastern University, 1988),pp. 43-58 (p. 49). Bernstein, p. no. SEX, POWER AND SIN IN O CRIME DO PADRE AMARO 6$ psychological consequences offemalesubordination to priestly paternalisticrule .Drawingon thetheories ofFreudandFoucault, thetwomaster theorists ofconfession parexcellence, myobjective inthepresent study is to analysetheempowered act oftheconfession, a keycomponent of O Crime do PadreAmarothathasnotbeenexplored theoretically.5 Although Foucault's theories onsexuality havereceived rigorous critical attention, his formulations on the confession are less well known.In Foucault'sanalysis,theconfession is perceived as 'an obligatory act of speech',an effect ofpowerintimately relatedto discourse, whichplaces 'theagencyofdomination [. . .] intheone who listens and saysnothing; [. . .] in theone who questionsand is notsupposedto know'.6Though Foucaultwas not interested in exploringgenderissues- the whole discussionon theconfession refers to a neutral(masculine) confessant despitetheoverwhelming tradition of womenpredominantly practicing theactofconfession - hisanalysis ofpenanceispertinent toourstudy as itunderlines thelossoffreedom through a ritualthatis 'inscribed at the heartoftheprocedures ofindividualization ofpower'.7It is thispower endowedupona singleauthority thatenablesthelistener to 'requirethe confession, prescribe and appreciate it,and intervene in orderto judge, punish, forgive, console,andreconcile'.8 Thispowerplacestheconfessant at themercy oftheconfessor: theconfessor appropriates theconfessing subject'sthoughts and desiresand translates themintotheeconomyof powerandknowledge. The Republican intellectual SampaioBrunohasformulated an in-depth critique oftheconfession inconnection withthePortuguese Church atthe turn ofthenineteenth century, underlining themental enslavement ofthe womenwho soughttemporal and spiritual direction in theconfessional booth.9 Brunoviewsthepriests' intrusion intodomestic andstateaffairs as 'particularmente agravadacom a grandeatracçaoque a mulhermanifestavapor tal pratica'.10 These ideas are by no meansspecific to the Portuguese confessional mode,as theworksof Blakeney, Micheletand Proudhon attest.11 Asthehistorian Fernando Catrogademonstrates, within a widespreadanti-clerical sentiment, the nineteenth-century campaign 5 I am borrowingthisexpressionfromBernstein, who rightly suggestsFreudand Foucault's 'very different intellectualand professional relationshipsto confession', namely Freud's Dsvchoanalvsis and Foucault'soolicinesvstem.Bernstein, d. 166.n. i. Michel Foucault, The Historyof Sexuality,trans,by Robert Hurley,3 vols (New York: Vintage,1990),1,62. 7 Foucault,p. 58. 8Foucault, pp.61-62. 9 Sampaio Bruno,A Questào Religiosa(Porto:Lello & Irmäos,1907),p. 439. Bruno,p. 4^9. 11See forexamplePierre-Joseph Proudhon,Pornocratie ou lesfemmes dans les tempsmodernes (Paris: Lacroix, 1875); Richard Blakeney,Popery in its Social Aspect (Edinburgh:George McGibbon, 1854);andJulesMichelet,Le Prêtre, la Femmeetla Famille(Paris:Chamerot,1861). 66 KATHRYN BISHOP-SANCHEZ against auricular confession andecclesiastical celibacy aimedtosafeguard theprivacy ofthefamily, thehonourofvirgins, conjugalfidelity and the naturaltransmission of inheritances.12 FollowingCatroga'sarguments, fundamental to theseattackswas theintention to nullify themediating function of theCatholicclergy by relegating it to thestatusof a man subject topassionsandsubordinate toworldly interests.13 Written inthe1870sat a timethatwitnessed theintensification ofthe debateconcerning auricular confession, O Crimedo...
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