REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN JÚLIO DANTAS’S CHRONICLES IN THE MAGAZINE ILUSTRAÇÃO PORTUGUESA (1913-1916)

Abstract

Between April 1913 and May 1916, Júlio Dantas published 129 chronicles in the second series of Ilustração Portuguesa. With publication starting in February 1906, the second series was a “Weekly review of the events of Portuguese life - social life, political life, artistic life, literary life, worldly life, sporting life, domestic life” and did not include any chronicle until number 374, contrary to what happened in the entire first series (1903-1906). Recovering the chronicle, the director Silva Graça gave the responsibility of its writing to Dantas, in a different format from the previous one, which had a single theme; now the chronicle appears, “under a new form, that of the impressive comment to ideas and facts, preceded by the quick enunciation of those facts or those ideas” because “The modern reader reads ‘à la minute’: twenty lines are enough to find a new aspect, mark a figure, comment on an initiative or fix an event”. Dantas respected these guidelines: in the chronicles he gives his opinion about the social, cultural and political reality of the republican Portugal with an always conclusive personal comment. Among the themes he dealt with women, whose socio-cultural reality was gaining a new momentum, occupy a prominent place. Therefore, by the thematic opportunity and originality of the approach, the aim of this text is an analysis of the representations of the female, such as women and fashion, women and war or women and the suffragist movement.