Resumo

COELHO BARBOSA, Keila. Representations of Indigenous Women in 16th-Century Brazilian Literature: Sexualization and Evangelization. En-clav. pen [online]. 2026, vol.20, n.39, pp.1-20.  Epub 27-Jan-2026. ISSN 2594-1100.  https://doi.org/10.46530/ecdp.v0i39.799.

Since the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil in 1500 and throughout the 16th century, intense literary activity developed, in which one of the priorities of authors was to show Europe and the world a description of the territory and its inhabitants, upon which a colonial society would be built. Within this literature, indigenous women were the subject of various representations that, in general terms, were conditioned by ideological, religious, political, and social factors. The objective of this article is to identify these factors and contextualize them within the historical framework in which the authors operate. To this end, we begin with a selection of texts that are classified according to the authors' intentions in their representation of indigenous women. The analysis carried out allows us to appreciate that these texts are dominated by a series of omnipresent fundamental ideas, such as the sexualization of these women, the debate about their rational condition in terms of their ability to acquire the Christian religion, and the inclusion of these women in colonial society based on European aesthetic and moral standards. The research conducted allows us to conclude that the representation of indigenous women in the literature of this period is conditioned by factors such as the gender of the authors, ignorance of their culture, and higher political, religious, and social interests.

Palavras-chave : Literature; colonial Brazil; indigenous women; representations.

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