Arte, identidade e escritas de si na obra de Frida Kahlo

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the construction of Frida Kahlo’s narrative by articulating art, pain, and self-writing. It departs from the problem of how the artist represents herself subjectively and symbolically in her visual and textual productions, seeking to understand how her self-portraits and diary function as instruments of subjectivity and resistance. The general objective is to analyze how Frida Kahlo constructs her identity through pictorial and discursive elements, in dialogue with her personal history, sociopolitical context, and cultural heritage. The investigation is grounded in theoretical frameworks on autobiography and self-writing, with emphasis on the works of Philippe Lejeune, Michel Foucault, and Roland Barthes, as well as the critical readings of Hayden Herrera, María Hesse, and Andrea Kettenmann. This is a qualitative research study, based on bibliographic review and aesthetic analysis of visual and textual works. The analytical corpus comprises self-portraits and excerpts from the artist’s diary, examined from the perspective of self-writing. The results reveal that Frida Kahlo transforms her experience of pain into symbolic and aesthetic language, constructing a multiple, hybrid, and poetic narrative. Her self-portraits and intimate writings transcend personal testimony and operate as political and affective devices of resistance. In this context, painting becomes an extension of the body and a mirror of the soul, resignifying wounds, affections, and identities in a singular way.