The Rule of 'O Dia dos Prodígios', by Lídia Jorge, in Founding the Contemporary Portuguese Prose

Abstract

This article presents considerations on O dia dos prodígios (1980), first novel by Portuguese writer Lídia Jorge, and its establishment as one of the founding novels of that contemporary prose. For presenting innovative aspects, which point to a breaking process with the previous generation of novels, the Portuguese philosopher Eduardo Lourenço considered Jorge’s O dia dos prodígios as one of the key novels to understand the 1974 Carnation Revolution and its consequences, with a detachment of six years from the movement. Starting from that principle, this article will discuss the most relevant changing aspects of the novel, aiming at confirming its founding condition, which, by the way, happens together with other works published at the same time.