Maria, Estina e Quina : personagens de “A Sibila”, de Agustina Bessa-Luís, e suas relações com a realidade feminina

Abstract

The female figure is a common theme in the work of Agustina Bessa-Luís. Although her characters be universal, the author draws different profiles that allow us to raise questions about the figurations of women in contemporary society. A Sibila, 1953, winner of the Delfim Guimarães and Eça de Queirós Awards, is considered by critics a historical landmark in Portuguese literature. For it is this who consecrates BessaLuís one of the greatest novelists, not only of Portuguese literature, but of universal literature. Among her literary contributions, the most prominent, in our view, was to make room for the new Portuguese contemporary fiction of female authorship. Referring to the figure of classical sibyls, Bessa-Luís explores the feminine mystical aura, a recurring aspect in her works, and by language, structure and analysis of details, urges the reader to reflections. It is in this sense that this work proposes to investigate the construction of the characters Maria, Estina and, especially, Quina and their relationship with the cultural and ideological roots that influenced the value judgments about the female reality in the above mentioned novel. In dealing with the configurations of the feminine in the work, Bessa-Luís provides an important discussion about some misogynist stereotypes, favoring their deconstruction. In this way, we intend to emphasize the immeasurable contribution of Bessa-Luís to the Portuguese literature, to make discussions about the rupture of misogynist stereotypes through the association of the feminine with the mystic in the work in question and furthermore, to discuss about the legacy of the Strong Women. Maria, Estina and Quina, three distinct female figurations that make up the Teixeira’s family Clan. Finally, we intend to analyze the three characters of the novel, establishing relationships between the female representation in their construction and the condition of women in patriarchal society. For this, we are based on Araújo and Fonseca (2015), Beauvoir (2009), Bloch (1995), Butler (2017), Coelho (1999), Fonseca (2017), Kury (2009), Machado (1979), Magalhães (1989), Moisés (2001 and 2013) and others.