Figurações da velhice nos romances Em Nome da Terra e a Máquina de Fazer Espanhóis

Abstract

Throughout the times, both old age and old people have spawned a self-contradictory tendency, according to the perspective they have been dealt with. They are seen either as mo-ment of wisdom and experience as well as synonym of venerable nature, or as a stage of de-crepitude and burdensome uncomfortable familiar and social charges. This ambivalence has had overall far-reaching effect on the various areas of different civilisations, ranging from political speech and action, to philosophical thinking, not disregarding the very art. In the post-modern and contemporary society, this double meaning has become more theoretical than practical, since the values crisis and the idolatry of the new as well have thrown the old people to the edge of society. As they don’t make for the sustaining of economies and are the concrete proof of man’s corruptibility and transience, the old friends are thrown to institutions submitted to the seemingly inevitable categorization, being the specificities undone, their autonomy denied and fading their dignity away. What stand does literature, particularly the portuguese one, take on this reality? How does it mirror old age in the contemporary society? The novels Em Nome da Terra and a máquina de fazer espanhóis, with the specificities which are intrinsic to the profile of authors with different ages, contexts and life experiences, fulfil good examples of that representation. After being laid by their children in an old people’s home, its protagonists have to face a varied loss: of their lifetime companionship, of their autonomy and integrity. Fighting against moments of deep loneliness, these old people need learn again to live, finding out, in a time that is con-ventionally thought to be sterile and devoid of any creation, an aim to belong to the world (that seems to have excluded them), the meaning for life, postponing the evil effects of time, drawing their attention to the plenitude of the instants, thus proving the human being’s validity until the last minute.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	José Cândido de Oliveira Martins (Supervisor)