O romance ibérico da Donzela Guerreira e a Balada de Mulan: uma leitura comparada

Abstract

This article proposes a comparative reading of the Iberian ballad The Warrior Maidenand a well-known Chinese poem –the Ballad of Mulan, both from medieval origins and passed by oral transmission. Our study begins with the internal specificities of the different Portuguese versions of the ballad. Then, taking into account the textual heterogeneity of the Iberian ballad, we compared the path of the warrior maiden and that of Mulan, in order to elucidate the meaning of the configuration of female identity ineach of the cultural spheres related.From a general point of view, the distinctive symbolic construction in the Chinese and the Portuguese ballads manifest different ways of expressing the prevailing ideologies of the respective societies. On the other hand, under the apparent cultural divergences, interesting convergence can be found by showing some female images of autonomies.