“Velhas assanhadas” by Hilda Hilst: an analysis of three pornographic texts

Abstract

From the 1990s, Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) began to conceive her erotica verba when she published her “lite­rary goodbye”. Marked by the baseness of human experiences, the productions of this phase constitute the writer’s obscene and pornographic tetralogy, which is gathered in the anthology Pornô Chic (2018a), as well as the drama Berta & Isabô: um fragmento pornogeriátrico rural (2018b) that, despite not being a fictional part of the tetralogy, brings the typical burlesque tone of Hilstian writings. In addition to this inherent obscenity, the presence of “velhas assanhadas” features in some of the works in the anthology. They appear in the short story “Bestera”, part of Cartas de um sedutor (2018c); in the poem “A Chapéu”, from Bufólicas (2018d); and in the cited piece (2018b). These texts were chosen for representing the concept of “senile erotic” through the figures of the elderly women, (MORAES, 2015), as well as a dissolution of the discursive convention about the “velha assanhada” (VISNADI, 2015), which has been constructed for centuries in the literature. We seek to understand the phonic constitution of old women in contrast to the pattern constructed about female old age (BEAUVOIR, 1967), as well as bringing the works closer to the pornographic device (MAINGUENEAU, 2010). Our methodology is exploratory, qualitative and bibliographical. In the end, it is expected to confirm that the four elderly women, in their mocking dialogues, face the censorship that hurts their existence, especially re­garding the exercise of sexuality in old age and the historical silencing of women.