Cala a boca, Bárbara: an economy of the female voice

The article, through an essay inspired by the Foucauldian archaeological perspective, deals with the modes of subjectivation caused by silence in women’s bodies. The empirical materials consist of a collection of songs from Brazilian popular music. The first part of the writing is produced from the verses of the songs, and the second part is produced at greater length with elements of the poetic-musical plot, drawing attention to one of them, which gives the article its name: Cala a Boca, Bárbara (“Shut up Bárbara”, by Chico Buarque and Ruy Guerra, 1973). The silences will be treated as practices that refer to the three environments of experience: the ways of knowledge, power and the relations within.