Theses defended
Quando a Escrita quebra o Silêncio: A Morte da Mãe (1979) de Maria Isabel Barreno
May 22, 2020
Feminist Studies
Adriana Bebiano
Revisiting works of female authorship is a crucial strategy in contemporary academic research in the field of feminist literary studies.
It is in the context of contemporary Portuguese literature and the scarce presence of a literary tradition of female authorship in the Portuguese literary canon that I anchor this study on A Morte da Mãe, by Maria Isabel Barreno (1939-2016). Published in 1979, five years after the April Revolution, this book, which may be classified as a novel-essay, is a radical query about the origins and the power of dominant patriarchal narratives in the configuration of women and the feminine.
Also known as one of the "three Marias" - the name given to the court process by the three female writers of Novas Cartas Portuguesas in 1972 -, Barreno, like Alice in Wonderland, invites us to look at the world in a different way, upside down, inside out, offering other hypotheses of reading or ways of interpretation. It is in this process of creation or journey of the imagination that Barreno revisits dominant narratives and questions the patriarchal representations of "femininity" that shape women and represent the female body throughout History. By bringing together the Great Narrative of Christianity and fairy tale and mythologies of Western culture, MM denaturalizes dominant narratives and rewrites concepts such as the beautiful and the ugly.
To claim a place in the canon for Barreno is also to question the predominantly masculine Portuguese literary canon itself. In addition, this dissertation is my contribution to the collective work of revisiting and rescuing a tradition of female-authored literary writing, giving voice to writers who have transgressed the discursive limits imposed on women's writing. By offering other possibilities of reading, and of existence, MM is a feminist and emancipatory novel that, I argue, will enrich a History that should be both plural and inclusive.
KEYWORDS: women authorship, contemporary Portuguese literature, canon, women, language, body
Public Defence date
Doctoral Programme
Supervision
Abstract
It is in the context of contemporary Portuguese literature and the scarce presence of a literary tradition of female authorship in the Portuguese literary canon that I anchor this study on A Morte da Mãe, by Maria Isabel Barreno (1939-2016). Published in 1979, five years after the April Revolution, this book, which may be classified as a novel-essay, is a radical query about the origins and the power of dominant patriarchal narratives in the configuration of women and the feminine.
Also known as one of the "three Marias" - the name given to the court process by the three female writers of Novas Cartas Portuguesas in 1972 -, Barreno, like Alice in Wonderland, invites us to look at the world in a different way, upside down, inside out, offering other hypotheses of reading or ways of interpretation. It is in this process of creation or journey of the imagination that Barreno revisits dominant narratives and questions the patriarchal representations of "femininity" that shape women and represent the female body throughout History. By bringing together the Great Narrative of Christianity and fairy tale and mythologies of Western culture, MM denaturalizes dominant narratives and rewrites concepts such as the beautiful and the ugly.
To claim a place in the canon for Barreno is also to question the predominantly masculine Portuguese literary canon itself. In addition, this dissertation is my contribution to the collective work of revisiting and rescuing a tradition of female-authored literary writing, giving voice to writers who have transgressed the discursive limits imposed on women's writing. By offering other possibilities of reading, and of existence, MM is a feminist and emancipatory novel that, I argue, will enrich a History that should be both plural and inclusive.
KEYWORDS: women authorship, contemporary Portuguese literature, canon, women, language, body