Ilhas da voz – paisagem e criação na prosa de Herberto Helder

Abstract

The article presents a “very partial” reading of Herberto Helder’s prose production in order to understand the conditioning by which the emergence of a properly literary voice takes place. That seems to be linked to a recurring element there, namely, that of the island (in its literal form, we could say, or in transfigurations). It is a partial reading as it is based on a non-circumscribed and systematic study of his work and its critical fortune, but motivated to establish relationships with a contemporary prose production that serves as a reference, like Helder’s, to my own production. The article also uses, in many moments, specular figures and doubles – which, like the island, refer to “turning back on oneself” – to understand the emergence of the literary voice as “another voice”.