Mother Figure or the “Twofold Image Reflected in the Same Mirror”: Notes on the Shorts Stories of Maria Teresa Horta

Abstract

The mother figure was, over the years, drawn according to catholic and patriarchal norms centred on the annihilation and marginalization of themes related to the corporeal dimension of the mother. Maria Teresa Horta, a paramount figure of the feminist movement, claims, since the beginning of her journey as a writer, the woman’s body and voice as weapons. In addition, she devotes many of her poems and short stories to the subject of motherhood. Therefore, this work aims to present a critical reading of some short stories of her latest fictional book, Meninas (2014), from a perspective focused on the portrayal of the mother figure, associated with the way she creates the relationship with her daughter.