“Como se calça uma pessoa que vai escrever?”

Cangiante self-representation in Maria Velho da Cost

Abstract

This work proposes the writings of Elisa, from Casas Pardas, as a formally transgressive essay of her self-portrait, delineating the author's conception of writing. By producing an intertextual discourse and appropriating various registers, Elisa subverts the authoritative and fixed nature of language, directly affecting the social grammar and representational discourses of women, particularly as writing individuals. Such is an artistic and social libertarian gesture. Fictional manipulation is thus emphasized as a fertile ground for liberation just like the exercise carried out by Três Marias in Novas Cartas Portuguesas which depends on the notion of face recognition and its puzzlement to unveil the condition of women in the 20th century.