Zulmira Falcarreira ou A Selva Azul da Alma

Abstract

The first quarter of the twentieth-century in Portugal was characterized by a series of important historical events: the Regicide, the fall of the Monarchy and the establishment of the Republic, and the First World War. By this time, women could not yet vote and they were systematically ignored in the debate of crucial social issues. From this historical context, a group of women poets comes out: Amélia de Guimarães Vilar, Virgínia Vitorino, Florbela Espanca, etc., who, mainly within periodicals, unveiled a feminine way of relating to the world. Nevertheless, Zulmira Falcarreira’s sonnets are still largely unpublished, and her role in women’s emancipation remains unknown to the academia. So, this article aims at pointing out a new author, arguing for the relevance of her poems to the changes in women’s social condition, in the last century.