Of Joanas, Paulas, and Mari(s)as

feminine constructions and the intimate landscape of affections around Helder Macedo

Abstract

This text, which opened our event held at UFSCar in São Carlos, sought to live up to the renowned Portuguese writer - and the man - Helder Macedo. It was written after my conversation with Helder and, therefore, I aimed to bring forth the subjects that were moving me at that moment. I was also deeply moved - and remain so - by the contact with the brilliant scholars dedicated to the study of Helder’s work: expressive women, enthusiastic researchers, whose energy I felt, in many ways, connected to - as could only be expected, it seems to me - given our shared passion for Helder Macedo. In this text, I sought to reflect the absence of boundaries between the “inside” and the “outside” of literary discourse, analyzing the aesthetic construction of female characters such as Joana, from Vícios e virtudes (2002), and Paula, from Pedro e Paula (1999), while blending this narrative construction with the author’s own words about these characters - spoken to me during our conversation - words of the man Helder Macedo. Echoing the blurred lines between fiction and reality that run through Helder Macedo’s entire body of work, I wished to share my literary experience as an avid reader of these characters, as well as the way I read them and the way I feel read by them - how they have shaped me and made me exist more fully as a woman, beyond the confines of narrative. Based on the construction of Joana and Paula, my text also reflects on themes such as utopia, control, and power - especially in relation to the feminine - as desired by our Helder Macedo, that writer, critic, and poet who delights in drawing close to us, women, and to our desire for wholeness, teaching - through his fiction - the fundamental movement of otherness.