Uma leitura do feminino nos romances de José Saramago

Abstract

The research hereby presented aims to comparatively investigate the female protagonists of two literary works by the Portuguese writer José Saramago: A jangada de pedra (1988) and As intermitências da morte (2005). The analysis focuses mainly on elucidating how the protagonists are represented, respectively, Joana Carda, Maria Guavaira and morte, and how this mechanism serves to build the image of women in these plots and, consequently, how it affects the readers image of women, at the same time the research investigates in what extent this image construction is linked to the stereotypes created for women by the patriarchy. Therefore, I make an individual study of each narrative, analyzing the types of focus, perspectives, figuration devices and figuration elements present in the narratives, and the subsequent comparison of their figuration displays, in order to track thematic approximations and departures that facilitate understanding who these women are, how their images are created, who provides information about them, if there is a pattern in the way they are made, and whether or not they are transgressors of those social roles assigned to women. In this sense, it was imperative to approach the reading exercise focusing on reading as a woman, seeking to relate different voices in the text that contributes to the construction and problematization of the identity of each protagonist. This study is based on theories about reading as a woman, focus, perspectives and character figuration, by researchers Jonathan Culler, Mieke Bal, Ansgar Nüning and Carlos Reis, respectively, through which I trace the representation of the feminine in the two literary works, the similarities and differences between them, the ties that bind them to the social roles that are imposed on them, the responsibilities given to them and the imaginary of the ideal woman that is created in Saramago's literary work.