A utopia do harém: representações do harém nas cartas persas de Montesquieu e em Nasci num Harém de Fatima Mernissi

Abstract

The harem has long been depicted as representative of the Orient in Western imagination. For some, a place of despotic rule and (female) oppression; to others, a feminist utopia of female freedom and protection. This paper analyzes two fundamental works that focus on the harem, Montesquieu’s 18th century Persian Letters, and Fatima Mernissi’s 20th century Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood. It will do a comparative and exploratory reading of the harems presented in these two works, while focusing specifically on issues of agency and power—all departing from the concept of despotic power, female and authorial agency, and the gaze.