Maria Elsa da Rocha

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Maria Elsa Gertrudes da Rocha
Born1924
Aldoná
Died2007
OccupationShort story writer, Poet

Maria Elsa da Rocha (1924-2007) was an Indian short-story writer and poet in Portuguese.

Life[edit]

Maria Elsa da Rocha was a school teacher by profession, which took her all over Goa (and Damão). The experiences she accrued would feed into her stories, which were also often based on hearsay and anecdotes.[citation needed]

Works[edit]

Throughout the 1960s, Rocha contributed short stories to the Margão-based Portuguese language newspaper A Vida, in which she co-edited a cultural page together, and the Portuguese-language programme 'Renascença' broadcast on All-India Radio.[citation needed]

In 2005 a collection of her short stories appeared under the title Vivências Partilhadas [Shared Lives].[1]

Vivências Partilhadas[edit]

Vivências Partilhadas provides widest range of representations of the Goan subaltern in Portuguese-language Goan literature post-1961, with a particular focus on the experiences of women,[2] though this deep-seated sympathy at times appears to be at cross-purposes with a certain social conservatism.[3] Rocha's writing is notable for the use she makes of particularly Goan-inflected Portuguese and the considerable use of Konkani in her dialogues.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Panjim, Goa: Third Millennium, 2006.
  2. ^ Paul Melo e Castro, 'How the Other Half Live: The Goan Subaltern in the Stories of Vimala Devi, Maria Elsa da Rocha and Epitácio Pais', in Portuguese Language and Literature in Goa: Past, Present and Future, Carmo D'Souza (ed.), Margão, India: CinnamonTeal, 2014, pp.26-32.
  3. ^ Hélder Garmes and Paul Melo e Castro 'Lirismo e Conservadorismo na Arena Política: o conto "Shivá, brincando..." da escritora goesa Maria Elsa da Rocha'. Revista Abril, 4.6 (2011), pp.77-87

4. Cielo G. Festino "Sharing Lives in Maria Elsa Da Rocha´s Vivências Partilhadas" In Muse India. Goan Literature in Portuguese. Issue 70. Nov-Dec, 2016.

Bibliography[edit]

Maria Elsa da Rocha. Vivências Partilhadas. Panjim, India: Third Millennium, 2005.