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Abstract(s)
O Diário de uma Viagem a Timor (1882-1883) descreve o itinerário de Isabel Pinto da França Tamagnini entre Singapura e Díli. O Diário oferece uma representação peculiar da cultura asiática e das suas mulheres, através do olhar de uma europeia cuja formação e mundividência em pouco ultrapassavam a esfera doméstica e religiosa. A escrita de Tamagnini reflecte a sensibilidade de um estrato privilegiado da sociedade, que considerava a escrita feminina como um passatempo tolerável de senhoras prendadas. Logo nas primeiras linhas do Diário, Tamagnini afirma claramente que a sua produção e recepção devem restringir-se ao círculo da família e amigos, pois ela mesma o considera um texto recreativo e impressionista. Mas é precisamente esta característica que faz do Diário de Tamagnini um documento da sociedade colonial portuguesa de finais do século xix. Tamagnini compõe uma representação subjectiva de uma realidade ‘exótica’ e dos seus actores, recordando a noção de ‘orientalismo’ de Edward Said. O olhar de Tamagnini é dominado pela pertença a uma elite etnocêntrica e produz um texto crítico, simultaneamente confessional e moralizador. Tamagnini parece viajar através de espaços de socialização aristocrática, mais do que através de geografias e culturas. Mas o espaço urbano é progressivamente substituído pelo território ‘selvagem’, à medida que a viagem se aproxima do destino. E aqui o Diário funciona como texto paradigmático, se bem que por vezes irreverente, de uma representação etnocêntrica da colónia, dos agentes coloniais e ‘seus’ colonizados, com especial atenção à descrição dos ‘tipos’ femininos observados ao longo desta Viagem a Timor.
The Journal of a Journey to Timor (1882-1883) describes Isabel Pinto da França Tamagnini’s itinerary between Singapore and Dili. Tamagnini’s Journal offers an insight into Asian culture, through the eyes of a European woman hardly aware of the world outside her domestic and religious circle. Tamagnini’s writing reflects the sensibility of an upper-middle sector of society, without political or social commitments, who considered female ‘scribbling’ as a socially acceptable passtime for gifted ladies. Tamagnini clearly states in her first lines that both the writing and reading of her journal are to be restricted to the domestic circle of family and friends, as it is intended to be an entertaining text, a narrative of impressions and emotions. But it is precisely this characteristic that turns Tamagnini’s Journal into a document of late 19th century Portuguese colonial society. She composes a subjective picture of an ‘exotic’ reality, recalling Edward Said’s notion of ‘Orientalism’. Tamagnini’s point of view is dominated by the spirit of an ethnocentric elite and produces a critical text that is both confessional and moralizing. She seems to travel through aristocratic social spaces even more than through other territories and cultures. But such urban spaces are gradually replaced by the indigenous ‘uncivilized’ territory, as the journey gets closer to its distant destiny. And here, the Journal functions as a paradigmatic discourse of colonialism, whose agents and subjects and their different cultures are mediated by the life and writing of a woman.
The Journal of a Journey to Timor (1882-1883) describes Isabel Pinto da França Tamagnini’s itinerary between Singapore and Dili. Tamagnini’s Journal offers an insight into Asian culture, through the eyes of a European woman hardly aware of the world outside her domestic and religious circle. Tamagnini’s writing reflects the sensibility of an upper-middle sector of society, without political or social commitments, who considered female ‘scribbling’ as a socially acceptable passtime for gifted ladies. Tamagnini clearly states in her first lines that both the writing and reading of her journal are to be restricted to the domestic circle of family and friends, as it is intended to be an entertaining text, a narrative of impressions and emotions. But it is precisely this characteristic that turns Tamagnini’s Journal into a document of late 19th century Portuguese colonial society. She composes a subjective picture of an ‘exotic’ reality, recalling Edward Said’s notion of ‘Orientalism’. Tamagnini’s point of view is dominated by the spirit of an ethnocentric elite and produces a critical text that is both confessional and moralizing. She seems to travel through aristocratic social spaces even more than through other territories and cultures. But such urban spaces are gradually replaced by the indigenous ‘uncivilized’ territory, as the journey gets closer to its distant destiny. And here, the Journal functions as a paradigmatic discourse of colonialism, whose agents and subjects and their different cultures are mediated by the life and writing of a woman.
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Keywords
Timor Mulher
Citation
Publisher
Instituto Politécnico do Porto. Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto