The glove and the hand (a redemption story)

Abstract

In Adília Lopes’s work, there are two poems that describe the subject’s experience as the relationship between the glove (which is visible) and the hand (which is hidden, but perhaps hoping to be seen). By addressing these two poems, I will analyze the relations between “Adília” and another self (another “I”) also present in her writings: Maria José da Silva Fidalgo de Oliveira, aka Zé, aka Cavaleiro de Oliveira, aka “a Baroque nun-poet”, etc. What kind of reading protocol are we dealing with, when, in Manhã and Bandolim, the photos of a young Maria José are accompanied by subtitles such as “Adília, Summer 1964”? How can we understand the use of the name “Adília” in the context of Maris José’s childhood, long before Adília Lopes’s name appeared in the poetry books now collected in Dobra? Answering these questions will lead us to consider different forms of hybridism in Adília Lopes’s writing.