Some figurations of the Middle Ages in Portuguese Children's and Youth Literature

Abstract

The presence of History in Portuguese Children’s and Youth Literature has been consubstantiated in different ways over time. The purposes of historical fiction, as well as their different levels or affiliation with reality vary according to the historical-cultural context, bearing witness to the spirit of the time(s). In Portugal, after overcoming the markedly ideologizing or propagandistic writing of the Estado Novo (1926-1974), even constrained by Instruções sobre Literatura Infantil [Instructions on Children’s Literature] (1950) and focused on the conformation of a "determined", ostensibly intentional, national identity, in the 1980s and 90s of the 20th century, events and historical figures gained a new thickness, a more human face, to, in the 21st century, include some recreations framed by parody, for example. Authors such as Alice Vieira (Lisbon, 1943), in particular, in the field of juvenile novels, Luísa Ducla Soares (Lisbon, 1939) and José Jorge Letria (Cascais, 1951), in verse or short story narratives, or Inácio Nuno Pignatelli (Porto, 1950), in the dramatic text, among others, are part of the group of authors who have followed the line we have just enunciated. In their literary production, the elements/signs of the Portuguese Middle Ages (11th-15th centuries) gain a relevant place. In this study, we will thus revisit a set of selected works that form a contemporary textual corpus in which it is possible to find different figurations of the referred period and conclude about the relevance granted, for example, to D. Afonso Henriques and to D. Dinis, central and symbolic images in the Portuguese collective memory.