"A Costa dos Murmúrios and O Vale da Paixão - acts of female resistance to the Portuguese patriarchal order"

Abstract

Speaking of Lídia Jorge and her novels, particularly A Costa dos Murmúrios and O Vale da Paixão is no easy task, considering the enormous quantity of critical work that has already been published both on the author and on the two novels in question. Just to give very few recent examples, I would like to mention the volume published last year and organized by Ana Paula Ferreira Para um Leitor Ignorado. Ensaios sobre a ficção de Lídia Jorge that includes extremely highly valuable contributions on O vale da Paixão, such as the one by Cláudia Pazos Alonso. Andreia Azevedo Soares’s master thesis A Manta intertextual do Vale da Paixão of the University of Porto is equally en eye opener on the novel. With regard to A Costa do Murmúrios, there are too many critical works to be named on what I personally consider Lídia Jorge’s best novel. But then, again, I am far from objective about it since I wrote my own PhD on it.