Not only resisting, but also advancing: from the boycott of Minha Senhora de Mim to its canonization

Abstract

In this article, we will analyze how Minha Senhora de Mim (1971), by Maria Teresa Horta, confronted the dictatorship that was its zeitgeist, starting from the way she used canonical literature and literary traditional to challenge a specific status quo, bringing a new model of relationships between sexes to literature, contrasting with the politics Estado Novo was imposing, that were constitutionally safeguarded, claiming to women the right both to sexual pleasure and to a place in society that was not limited to being adjunctive. The way literary traditional was challenged will get some attention, since it is done through the subversion of the content of medieval cantigas de amigo. In a second part, we will analyze not only the context of the literary work creation, but also the consequent action of PIDE. Finally, we will analyze the role of the political policy as far as the boycott of this book and the literary career of the author are concerned, trying to understand if it was successful, as well as the role this work plays in the Portuguese literary canon.