Obra cronística de Agustina: pensamento e estilo

Abstract

Agustina Bessa-Luís was a regular contributor to Portuguese periodicals for six decades, between 1947 and 2007. The author’s nearly twelve hundred texts were published in thirty-four different newspapers and magazines and make up a corpus of essays, editorials, criticism, short stories and, above all, chronicles. In some newspapers, the writer kept column in which she published hundreds of ‘crónicas’. The column provided a space for personal freedom, with a regular and lasting cadence and a distinct audience.

This essay analyses the ‘crónicas’ included respectively in “Agustina Bessa-Luís and...” (1965-1972) from Diário Popular, “Editorial”(1986-1987) from O Primeiro de Janeiro and “Cartas do Campo Alegre”(1990-1991) from Diário de Notícias.

In her texts, Bessa-Luís commented on the main events of her historical present all the while maintaining a formal and stylistic cohesion over the decades, the main features of which were essayistic digressions, a contemporary outlook, and humour, which make his journalistic texts topical.

While her presence in the press reinforced her importance as a writer in the Portuguese literary field, it also enabled her to develop a cohesive and distinctive way of thinking about the age in which she lived, establishing herself as an intellectual of her time.