As vozes das mulheres em três contos de Mia Couto

Abstract

This research analyzes the female characters present in three short stories from Mia Couto's book O fio das missangas (2003), they are: A saia almarrotada, As Três irmãs and Meia culpa, meia própria culpa. We will base our investigation on the reflections of Octavio Paz, Antonie Compagnon and Achile Mbembe on tradition and modernity, as the author of the stories rescues the values of the Mozambican people, their knowledge and history and establishes a dialogue between tradition and modernity, marked by continuous resumptions and interruptions. Among so many dialogues that the narratives studied in this work present, we will discuss the dialogue between orality and writing, we will use the reflections of Ana Maria Mafalda Leite. It is also extremely important to emphasize that this study discusses and problematizes some manifestations of oppression present in the stories, but, mainly, it observes how female characters in the narratives are resistance in a society marked by oppression. The analysis verifies that the women studied are on the border between their situation of marginality and the search for their individuality, although they live between silencing and submission, they find in the specifics and singularities of their histories, other paths, other possibilities. This research will also be supported by some theorists of African literature, such as Francisco Noa and Kwame Appiah, who strongly corroborate the approach taken in this study on the cultural system of Mozambique, especially when we reflect on the construction of the characters' identities and also the construction of Mozambique's identity itself.