O feminino mítico em Mulheres de cinzas, de Mia Couto

Abstract

Women of the ashes, written by Mia Couto, feminine spaces are made from events that flow from the beliefs, myths and customs of the Mozambican natives, like an inheritance from the ancestors, passed on orally, from generation to generation. It’s a way of living in a religious condition, worshiping the spirits of relatives who did not die, in this view, because their bodies were sown in the earth, so they have continued to live and make the world go round. They would manifest themselves in nature. The women’s experiences are presented as new variations of archetypes, connected to myths established along the trajectory of humanity, which are being transformed according to the locality and the culture of the people. In this novel, the archetype of the Great Mother is highlighted, what is personified on Earth, the Mother Earth, a character of fundamental importance in the novel, that pays homage to Africa and Nature, as a strong mother who cares for her children. The archetype is also personified in the human mother, which supports the socio-family nucleus and acts as a synonym of fertility and nutrition, like the earth. Thus, the author creates a magical space, composed by the actions and attitudes of women, in consonance with Nature. So Mia Couto expresses his admiration, affection, appreciation and gratitude towards the women, especially in their role of mother. However, the attitudes of the female characters, what makes them transcend as an exemplary human model, are not restricted to maternal affection, but also comprehends the resilience and the resistance during the everyday confrontations, in the face of external and internal conflicts, which is observed throughout the novel. Much of them emerge because of Colonialism, as well as the prevalent androcentrism of that patriarchal world, which instigates gender violence along with social and individual marginalization of women. Against this background, Couto redesigns the women and constitutes them with heroic attributes, with characteristics normally applied to men. The formation of the narrative in circular movements, with the final return to the beginning of time, follows, in content and form, the institute of archetypes and myths as a way of giving sacredness to events, from archaic times to the present day. The study is based on scholars of sacred myths and archetypes such as Eliade, Campbell, Jung and Bolen, also social science scholars such as Bhabha and Khapoya.