Brave Heroines and Deceased Companions

women and Crime in the Weekly Chronicles of Carmen Dolores(O Paiz, Rio de Janeiro, 1905)

Abstract

From 1905 to 1910, Emília Moncorvo Bandeira de Mello, under the pseudonym Carmen Dolores, wrote the "A Semana" section of the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Paiz. Commenting on the previous days' news, Dolores focused on events that "smelled of blood and death." Her chronicles were part of a transnational context in which crime became an object of media consumption, gaining prominence in print. Considering the social representations present in the chronicles and their dialogic relationship with social reality and the gendered nature of journalistic activity, this article analyzes two of Dolores's works that address the relationship between women and crime. Through intertextual analysis of the documents, we identified the dialogues established between Dolores's chronicles, other discourses on crime, and the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic values ​​of the period regarding gender relations. The results show that the columnist defended traditional institutions and values, such as family, marriage and modesty, but from her own perspective, exposing the multiple forms of violence that affected women and defending a more equal place for them in Rio de Janeiro society.