Condição feminina e casamento: tradição e ruptura nos romances Segredo de amor, de Maria de Figueiredo e Para além do amor, de Maria Lamas

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the novels Para Além do Amor (1935), by Maria Lamas, and Segredo de Amor (1944), by Maria de Figueiredo, focusing on the characters Marta and Lúcia. From a cri-tical perspective, these characters represent distinct views on the condition of women within marriage, shaped by the roles assigned to women during the Salazar dictatorship. Through a critical and analytical approach to the corpus, this study aims to understand the role of women in marriage during a period of authoritarian rule and how this context influences the development of female characters. The relevance of this research lies in demonstrating how the writing of these authors contributes to the construction of female subjectivities, particularly through discus-sions on divorce and religious education in mid-20th-century Portugal. The theoretical fra-mework draws on Cultural Studies, with a focus on gender and class, and incorporates Feminist Literary Criticism particularly the works of female authors such as Branco (1991, 2004); Maga-lhães (1987, 1995, 2004, 2010); and Anastácio (2005, 2022) as well as scholarship on the ima-ge of women and marriage, including Cova and Pinto (1983), Edfeldt (2005), Silva (2013), and Torres (1987, 2000, 2001, 2002), among others. The analysis reveals that women’s writing can at times function as a transgressive force that challenges institutionalized roles and identities centered on motherhood and marriage. At other times, it reinforces these roles in response to technological mechanisms and a structurally organized, performative system.