De gregos a portugueses. A transferência cultural como um problema de consciência crítica na Cidade de Ulisses de Teolinda Gersão

The novel A cidade de Ulisses (2011), written as an answer to the economic crisis, sheds a new light on the relationship between Portugal and Greece. This relationship was very important for the generation living under the regime of Salazar, who looked up to Greece for a model of supranational identity and true civilization, as opposed to the vision launched by the official propaganda. In her novel, Teolinda Gersão deconstructs one of the myths of the Portuguese identity, the belief that the city of Lisbon had been founded by Ulysses. From a neofeminist perspective, she criticizes the presence of this paradigm in the Portuguese culture. At the same time, she deconstructs the idealistic vision of Greece, replacing it by a sounder, more realistic idea of identification and solidarity with Europe’s deficient South.