Illness and Somatic Consciousness in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema

Abstract

This article argues that certain Brazilian films produced in the late 2010s and early 2020s utilize illness as a political metaphor to depict the experience of people subalternized by markers of class and race—at times intersecting with gender signifier. I defend the hypothesis that illness manifests a somatic consciousness capable of unveiling how the power mechanisms of the Brazilian state or neoliberal policies inscribe themselves upon the bodies of oppressed social groups. Conversely, illness also serves to potentialize subjects’ forms of agency in the face of adverse realities. In order to elucidate the singularities of the ailing body I will focus my analysis on two works: Mormaço (Marina Meliande, 2018) and The Fever (A Febre, Maya Da-Rin, 2019).