A voz e a vez de Eva: a nova heroína contemporânea em obras de José Saramago

Abstract

The proposal of this work is to carry out an analysis of the feminine figure in the romances novels Jangada de Pedra, História do cerco de Lisboa and Ensaio sobre a Cegueira of the writer José Saramago. Beginning with a short research of the woman history as a way to trace her trajectory along the time for her emancipation, and with the analysis of the different feminine identities, the study reveals a new concept of the woman in Portuguese literature.The writer proposes in his work a reflection of the world situation through the individuals and their attitudes, responsibilities and desires. The lessons of his novels to the readers, most of the time have start from feminine figures. The woman completes herself playing a mother´s role, protector and partner, and at the same time lover and warrior. Considered at the present work as an actual heroine, she takes the mission of the two distinct activities that the society insisted in making them apart, taking care of home and family while she works to provide their needs.In this work the woman also has the power of sensibility and compassion to help those in needs even when she barely knows them. She is also the one who can, with charm, become herself from girl to woman, fitting in as saint and prostitute, externally pure and seducer in her essence.However, Saramago s writings are not only about the matrix s patriarchal inhibition, ignoring the man s role. There is the rescue of matriarchal primitive cultures, with woman and man governing in equality and peacefully. For this reason, the man is also very important in his novels, since together with the woman, motivated and guided by her, they go trough love for an existential cross over for the search of knowledge