Dominga or the art of dealing with mystery

Abstract

This paper studies the specificities of the little-known tale Dominga in the context of Agustina Bessa-Luís' work, in particular its connections to French and German cultures, rare in the Lusitanian writer's texts. We propose to investigate how these cross-cultural references is the cornerstone of a universe simultaneously autobiographical and fantastic in the Sartrian sense, which leads to a reflection on the limits of human imagination and the boundaries between literature and reality. When read as a mise en abîme of storytelling, we analyze how Dominga becomes an ars poetica of how to deal with mystery, essential to the understanding of Agustina's texts. From listener to narrator, we observe Dominga's visitor confronting the enigmas of Heidelberg, but also the German writer's past, which tests her curiosity for the truth and her ability to assume the irremediable. Finally, we highlight how the solution found - the absence of hope - is present in other novels by the writer and in dialogue with the tales of Antoine Saint-Exupéry.