‘New Portuguese Letters’ have always been ignored in Portugal
ONE The writer understands how this work is not studied in several objects from foreign universities, considering that the country is still behind the times of the book.
‘Novas Cartas Portuguesas’, written by Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta and Maria Velho da Costa, based on love letters addressed to a French officer by Mariana Alcoforado, constituted a libel against the prevailing ideology in the pre- 25 de Abril, which denounced the colonial war, the prolonged oppression of women, a persecutory judicial system, emigration and fascist violence.
It began to be written in May 1971 and was published in April 1972, having been banned by the then regime and its authors brought to trial.
The book that almost the history of feminism began as a milestone in freedom from opposition to the regime, for the struggle for freedom, after its publication, through its Portuguese publication, through a publication in a time as it exists in Portugal, through Maria Teresa Horta, the only one of the “Três Marias” still alive, in non-declarations to Lusa, adding that she understands this situation.
“Nobody has ever called the ‘New Portuguese Letters’ in Portugal, now, all of a sudden, everything goes crazy,” he told Lusa, adding: “Many were written years ago. every five minutes they talk about the ‘New Letters’, one is perplexed”.
The writer realizes the importance that the work had at the time of its publication, because the case never went to court, there was a dictatorship and “it couldn’t be any other way”.
The book was, then, published with the seal of the Cor, which had the literary work of Natália Correia, the only publisher that would run the risk of the direction being published as recorded by Maria Teresa Horta – and who, even being urged to cut parts, insisted on publishing it in full.
This first edition was collected and destroyed by the police, three days after it was released on the market – considered to be of “sanitary pornographic content after and an attack on public morals” -, and as three authors had to report to the police, where an interrogation was censored. .
As the situation worsened, at the request of the authors, a friend of Maria Isabel Barreno who was going to France took the book to Simone de Beauvoir, who was responsible for its international dissemination.
“It was not a foreigner that things rushed and made the ‘New Letters’ what the ‘New Letters’ are, as far as I am concerned, abroad, because, inside, I’ve never seen that anyone cared much about the ‘New Portuguese Letters’ ‘ ‘, it’s a strange thing, I even worry several times if people don’t understand what’s written there,” he said.
“I think that people read the ‘New Letters’ a little on the side, they never quite understood what we meant. Suddenly, after 50 years, ‘look, they wrote the New Letters, the New Letters are Portuguese'”, he joked.
The international impact of the event took place shortly after its publication by the writer Simone de Beauvoir and the public knowledge of the process that the “Três Marias” were targeted, with the coverage of the process made by international media (among such as Le Monde, Times, New York Times, Nouvel Observateur and North American television), feminist demonstrations in Portuguese embassies abroad and several international personalities (such as Marguerite Duras, Doris Lessing, Iris Murdoch or Delphine Seyrig).
These were the reason for the case to be voted on, in June 1973, at a conference of the National Organization for Women (NOW), in Boston, as the first international feminist cause, recalls Ana Luísa Amaral, in the introductory note to an edition of the work of 2010.
The politics of recognition, which makes an aesthetic work, which remains “fundamental”, which remains “fundamental”, meaning “was not properly noted, nor studied in Portugal, recognition evident in the astonishing number of translations into other languages, which” places it among the most translated Portuguese books abroad”, highlights Ana Luísa Amaral.
Even today, the work taught in a large number of foreign universities is the object of study, dissertations, essays and articles in the international press, or that – according to Maria Teresa Horta – does not happen in Portugal.
“In teaching, Portuguese teachers don’t want to teach anything that is close to the ‘New Letters’, I think, but anyway, they want women to continue… to behave very well, a little more modern than before, but not very much “, he criticized.
The writer is so recognized that today there is “a big difference” in relation to what the female reality was in the Estado Novo, “but not as big as in the ‘New Letters'”.
But not only for students, the book has not been welcomed as abroad, it also launches between study and academics to seek “texts, articles, essays on the ‘Teresa Novas Cartas’ the challenge of seeking in Portugal” there is almost no, “abroad yes”.
According to Ana Luísa Amaral, the scandal surrounding the book’s publication brought as a “perverse consequence” the idea, “especially widespread in Portugal”, that it is a dated work, with an outdated vision and an outdated feminism.
However, he contests this perspective, claiming that the “New Portuguese letters” can be considered today more recent feminist theories, or ‘queer'”.
The first edition of the book was seized, as it had to be presented to the police, where they were interrogated together and separately, so that it was revealed who had written the texts, in particular as parts when morality was most affected.
Until today, three of them refused to reveal and no one knows the authorship of each text individually, as highlighted to Lusa Maria Teresa Horta, who contests a somewhat widespread idea that the majority would be the work of Maria Velho da Costa.
“They were written by three. No one will say [quem escreveu cada texto]. They are already I neither dead nor dead I say who wrote it, because we don’t live one I say and who wrote it.
“In my family, friends, friends, nobody knows from my mouth who wrote what of the ‘New Letters'” and it will remain so forever, because “this position is part of the construction of the book, it is a main part, even, of the construction of the book”.
The ‘Portuguese Letters did not start to be written in May 1971, and for nine months with him the authorities met every week, one night a week, at Maria Teresa Horta’s house, waiting for his texts.
How “Três Marias” arrived at their trial, which began on October 25, 1973, and they were only convicted because, after successive incidents and delays, the Revolution of April 25, 1974 took place.
Also Read: Recording by Maria Teresa Horta “New Portuguese Letters” 50 years later
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