Poetry
Ritos de passagem
Not translated into English
Ana Paula Tavares · 1985
Synopsis
Poems that follow the stages of a woman's life, from birth and childhood to puberty, passage and death. In the section “De cheiro macio ao tacto”, fruits of southern Angola, the maboque and the gourd, speak of the female body and sexuality; the section on ceremonies of passage touches on initiation rites, first menstruation and fertility. The collection also speaks of women's free choice and of betrayal in marriage.
Context
The collection appeared in 1985; it is its author's first book. A Portuguese edition appeared in Lisbon from Caminho in 2007, with a preface by Inocência Mata and illustrated by José Luandino Vieira, and the book opens the collected poetry published in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. Inocência Mata sees in it an individual quest, more intimate and dreamlike; critics set it against the collective poetry of struggle of the elders.
Who it is for
Poems in Portuguese, in a sensual and dense language; no French or English translation of the collection.
Prizes and reception
Critics hail in it a new, feminine diction that rethinks a sexuality long silent in Angolan poetry.
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