Patrícia Melo. “Favela Novel” and Crime Novel. Genre/Gender

This article reflects upon two questions: is the “favela novel” a crime novel? And, is it possible to detect aspects of gender in Patrícia Melo’s “favela novels”? Arguably,the “favela novel” is a literature of violence, to be more precise, it is about the representation of violence. However, while the difference between the two may sometimes betenuous, these novels do not fit the paradigms of a crime novel. Additionally, from the analysis of the construction of the characters Máiquel and Reizinho (O Matador and Inferno), it is indeed possible to interpret a gender bias in Patrícia Melo’s texts.