Abstract
This article analyzes how Lidia Jorge’s nameless woman narrator in O vale da paixao reconstructs through a story of resistance the legacy of her donjuanesque father/uncle. Dealing with the father’s legacy becomes a priority for a narrator who wishes both to affirm her feminine identity and appropriate her father’s memory. However, remembrance is not devoid of perils. To rescue her father’s life from slander, the narrator must find ways to reinterpret the myth of the rebellious, globetrotter womanizer he impersonates in the traditional patriarchal unit. Using Jacques Lacan writings on drives and Alenka Zupancic’s reading of Don Juan, I will show how Lidia Jorge’s narrative rewriting of the myth of Don Juan disrupts the patriarchal system of values from which it draws its strength. This article is published under a CC-BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Highlights
Set in the small provincial town of São Sebastião de Valmares in the Algarve, southern Portugal, O vale da paixão tells the story of the Dias family
The narrator, painstakingly unfolds the story of her father as she tries to deal with his contradictory legacy after his death
O vale da paixão emerges as a narrative effort to rescue from the patriarchal and conservative context in which her legacy is enmeshed, the scattered elements she can claim her own
Summary
Set in the small provincial town of São Sebastião de Valmares in the Algarve, southern Portugal, O vale da paixão tells the story of the Dias family. The arrival by mail of her father’s inheritance, an old soldier’s blanket on which his father supposedly performed both the artistic and sexual exploits that made him famous, triggers the desire to revise in a new light her vilified paternal figure and her own history In this sense, O vale da paixão emerges as a narrative effort to rescue from the patriarchal and conservative context in which her legacy is enmeshed, the scattered elements she can claim her own. A means of protection and aggression at the same time, the revolver becomes, like the rest of her father’s inheritance, paramount to her survival during her childhood It is through these objects and scattered memories that she finds an outlet to escape briefly Valmares’ authoritarian traditions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
