FEMALE’S BODY POLITICS IN "SNAKES AND EARRINGS"

Abstract

Kanehara Hitomi, born in the city of Tokyo on August 8th, 1983, daughter of a teacher of literature and translator, interrupted her studies when she was twelve, leaving home at fifteen. Her first published novel was Snakes and Earrings, which came to be translated to many different languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, being published by Geração Editorial in 2007, only three years after its first Japanese edition. Snakes and Earrings sold thousands of copies, and won the Akutagawa Prize, the most important literature prize in Japan. This article intends to discuss the politics the feminine body exercise inside the text, beyond ways of interpretation that allows us to affirm that the novel, in its essence, is a way to fight against the Japanese nation patriarchal system and culture.