Cultural representations about clandestine abortion in Portugal: a comparative analysis

Abstract

 Since the beginning of the dictatorship (1933) and until the decriminalization of abortion in Portugal (2007), several women have produced cultural objects in which they portray the reality of illegal abortions. They are relevant for the national and international artistic scene and triggered both social and political repression and broad solidarity movements. In this article, a comparative analysis is made of a set of pieces that show the concern and reality of women who were doing illegal abortions. Through a diachronic approach, literary and artistic representations that were produced at different times in the same culture are analyzed. The methodology of comparative literature and art history is used, applying the close reading and the theory of iconology and iconography by Erwin Panofsky. Starts with Novas Cartas Portuguesas, passing through Grades Vivas and Ela é apenas mulher, focusing later on the Aborto series. We begin by making an introduction, contextualizing the condition of women in Portugal particularly during the Estado Novo, analyzing the cultural representations of the abortion, addressing the social, political persecution and censorship suffered by the authors, ending with a debate on the topic, abortion today, rising threats to the right to the body and respective cultural resistance.