FROM PAIN TO MADNESS, FROM MADNESS TO RESISTANCE

Abstract

The present study brings an analysis of the episode of the crazy woman from the river, which is in the novel “The Joyful Song of the Partridge”, by Mozambican author Paulina Chiziane. The main goal of the text is to notice, by means of the cited episode, both gender and colonial violence which affect black women in Mozambique. The crazy woman from the river, Maria das Dores, invades the bank of river Licungo, which was exclusive to men. She defies everyone with her nudity and smile, not letting herself be affected by the threats that surround her. Because of her boldness, she is regarded as mad. The analyses were backed by Ana Mafalda Leite, who points out the orality in Chiziane’s texts as a means of preserving the culture and traditional values of Mozambique; Paulina Chiziane’s interview, given to Rosália Diogo, in which the author talks about the practice of the bride price (lobolo). And also, the definition of madness, according to Michel Foucault, is highlighted in the analysis as a result of the social and power relations that include and exclude those who do not adjust to the established rules and the definition of symbolical violence developed by Pierre Bourdieu. By the end of the text, it is concluded that, even engendered and gestated by a sequence of kinds of violence, mainly the colonial and gender violence, the Mozambican woman keeps on resisting and renewing cultural values and tradition.