Cuidadores-enfermeiros: representação dessas personagens em contos de Machado de Assis e Rubem Fonseca

Abstract

The objective of this work is to discuss nurses‟ representation in Brazilian Literature, specifically the informal care in two distant historical moments and in the work of two different authors. Taken as a social object, the profession consists of a network of discourses with socially circulating. The literary discourse, being a source of space and representations, expressed knowledgeabout the nurse. The comparison between character´s representation, in distant historical works, let‟s see whether the literary text operates an emancipatory vision in order to highlight the professionalism, or reinforce the stereotype about this professional ranging from the dedicated white angel or an angel of mercy (quiet, discreet, kind, caring, competent, determined), until the evil and vulgar sergeant on skirts. By means of a structural analysis of character´s composition we examine the modes of representation of the caregiver-nurse in Brazilian literature works in nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This study includes the tales "O enfermeiro", present in Várias histórias by Machado de Assis (1896), and caregiver-nurse Joseph, the protagonist of the stories: "A matéria do sonho" (Lúcia McCartney, 1978), "O anjo da guarda "(Histórias de amor, 1997) and"livro dos panegíricos ", present in Romance negro, Rubem Fonseca (1992). To substantiate theoretically these analyzes the theory of narrative in dialogue with the political vision of cultural studies will be presented, as well as texts in the field of nursing that historicize this professional constitution.