The Power of the Image in the Work of Lídia Jorge

«A pioneering first in the English language. This is a wonderfully subtle, multifaceted study of the image in the work of one of Portugal’s greatest writers. Admirable for its depth of analysis and breadth of coverage, this is a real gift for new learners of Portuguese and established scholars alike.» (Hilary Owen, University of Oxford) «The present collection of essays, produced by some of the best scholars who have dealt with Lídia Jorge’s work, should be of great help to English readers not familiar with the original language of a compelling, engaging writer deeply concerned with the world she lives in and the future of us all.» (Onésimo Teotónio Almeida, Brown University) As Aristotle has written, the image is at the core of the soul’s language. Indeed, given its significant potential and capacity for revelation – heightened in a society dominated by visual culture – the image would seem to be key to reflecting, critically and creatively, on humanity and on history itself. Lídia Jorge has asserted several times that her writing has always taken as its starting point a powerful and inspiring image, which concentrates the various meanings and reflections that she intends to explore while also dispersing these across her texts. Radiating from the initial image, Jorge manages to develop a gaze which is simultaneously critical, thorough and informative. Scholars point out that whenever language opens to universal images and mythologies capable of conveying visions of clarity, the subversive power of beauty is re-asserted. This power is confirmed and examined from different points of view and theories in this volume.

Table of Contents:
Contents: From Looking to Seeing: The Potentiality of Images – Ana Paula Ferreira: Theories of the Image in Lídia Jorge’s Fiction – Maria Graciete Besse: Lídia Jorge and the Images Burning in the Thickness of Time – Sónia Rita Melo: Lídia Jorge or the Poetic Object as a Sight of the Incommensurable Image – Images and Testimonies – Isabel Cristina Rodrigues: Chronicle of a Genre Foretold: The crónica’s Trajectory in Lídia Jorge’s Narrative – José Cândido de Oliveira Martins: For a New Ecology of Human Experience: Images of the Contemporary in Lídia Jorge’s crónicas – Olivia Glaze: Exposing War Crimes: Verbal and Visual Layering in A Costa dos Murmúrios – Patrícia Martinho Ferreira: The Sonic Ecology of a Falling Empire in "O Amor em Lobito Bay" – From Cinema to Literature – Alexandra Gonçalves Lopes: A Specular Game of Images: The Representation of the World and of Artistic Creation in O Jardim sem Limites by Lídia Jorge – Conceição Brandão: The Image of a Still Moment That Escapes: O Jardim sem Limites of Lídia Jorge and the Cinema of Tarkovsky – Nazaré Torrão: Media, Landscape and Identity in O Cais das Merendas – The Woman and Her Image – Maria Araújo da Silva: Image, Body and Identity in A Noite das Mulheres Cantoras – Franklin Nelson: Not Ave but Adeus, Maria, or Re- evaluating the Religious in Notícia da Cidade Silvestre – Personal Vews – Lídia Jorge: New Constellations – Augusto Santos Silva: Two Paths to Lídia Jorge.