Lídia Jorge (born 18 June 1946) is a prominent Portuguese novelist and author whose work is representative of a recent style of Portuguese writing, the so-called "Post Revolution Generation".
Life
Lídia Jorge was born in the village of Boliqueime in the Algarve region of southern Portugal in a family of farmers and emigrants. She graduated in Romance Philology from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon and became a secondary school teacher. In this position, she spent some decisive years in Angola and Mozambique, during the last period of the Portuguese Colonial War, but most of her teaching career was in Portugal. She was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon between 1995 and 1999. She also served as a member of the Portuguese High Authority for Media ((Social Communication)) and was a member of the General Council of the University of Algarve.
Publications
Lídia Jorge's first publication, the novel O Dia dos Prodígios [The Day of the Prodigies] (1980), is considered to be a major contribution to the new wave of modern Portuguese literature which followed the end of the Estado Novo regime in 1974. The two novels which followed, O Cais das Merendas [The Wharf of the Parties’ Remains] (1982) and Notícia da Cidade Silvestre [The Wild Town Remembering] (1984) both won the Lisbon Municipality Literary Prize.
It was, however, with A Costa dos Murmúrios [The Murmuring Coast] (1988), a book that draws upon her experiences in colonial Africa, that the author confirmed her status as one of the leading figures in modern Portuguese literature.
In 1998 O Vale da Paixão [The Painter of Birds] won a number of awards. Four years later the novel O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas [The Wind Whistling in the Cranes] (2002) won the Grande Prémio da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (Portuguese Writers' Association Prize) and the Prémio Correntes d'Escritas (Prize for New Currents in Writing).
In 2007 Lídia Jorge published the novel Combateremos a Sombra [We Shall Fight the Shadow], which was launched at the Fernando Pessoa Foundation in Lisbon. This novel won the Michel Brisset Prize 2008 awarded by the French Psychiatrists Association.
In 2009 the author published the essay Contrato Sentimental [Sentimental Contract], a critical reflection on the future of Portugal. In 2011 she wrote A Noite das Mulheres Cantoras [The Night of the Singing Women].
Os Memoráveis, published in 2014, is a book about the mythology of the Carnation Revolution, recovering the theme of O Dia dos Prodígios, her first book. In 2018, she published Estuário, about the vulnerability of the present time. In 2022, the writer published Misericórdia, a reflection on humanity and a tribute to her mother, Maria dos Remédios, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic. With this novel, Lídia Jorge won several prizes.
Lídia Jorge has also written for the younger audience: O Grande Voo do Pardal [The Great Flight of the Sparrow] (2007) illustrated by Inês de Oliveira, and Romance do Grande Gatão [Big Tomcat's Novel] (2010) illustrated by Danuta Wojciechowska.
Although she had written poetry from an early age, it was only in 2019 that she published her first book of poems, O Livro das Tréguas. Lídia Jorge has published anthologies of short stories, Marido e Outros Contos [Husband and Other Stories] (1997), O Belo Adormecido [The Sleeping Beau] (2003), Praça de Londres [London Plaza] (2008), O Amor em Lobito Bay [Love in Lobito Bay] (2016) in addition to separate editions of A Instrumentalina (1992) and O Conto do Nadador [The story of the Swimmer] (1992).
In 2020, under the title Em Todos os Sentidos, she gathered the chronicles she had read over the course of a year on Portuguese public radio, Antena 2. In 2022, the writer published Misericórdia, a reflection on humanity and a tribute to her mother, Maria dos Remédios, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Main themes
- the colonial and dictatorial past;
- the meaning of revolutions;
- tensions between modern and postmodern society;
- conflicts between generations;
- family breakups;
- the female condition;
- emigration.
Adaptations
Theatre
Lídia Jorge's play A Maçon was staged at the Dona Maria II National Theatre in 1997, directed by Carlos Avilez. A theatrical adaptation of O Dia dos Prodígios was also performed, directed by Cucha Carvalheiro at Teatro da Trindade in Lisbon. Recently, Instruções para Voar was performed by ACTA, at Teatro Lethes in Faro and Teatro da Trindade. The latter was directed by Juni Dahr; Jean-Guy Lecayt was responsible for the scenography.