A VIDA E O LEGADO DE MARTA DA SILVA VAN MIEROPMarta da Silva Van Mierop的生平與遺愿
This article analyzes the historical figure of Marta da Silva Van Mierop (1766–1828) through the tension between fiction and documentation, taking as its starting point the historical novel *City of Broken Promises* by Austin Coates (1960s), which decisively contributed to the historiographic visibi...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
April 2007
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40022/3711 |
| Summary: | This article analyzes the historical figure of Marta da Silva Van Mierop (1766–1828) through the tension between fiction and documentation, taking as its starting point the historical novel *City of Broken Promises* by Austin Coates (1960s), which decisively contributed to the historiographic visibility of Macau’s “greatest benefactress.” The investigation seeks to reconstruct the life and “legacy” of the shipowner, confronting the novelistically constructed plot with data gathered from wills, oral tradition, English historical archives, and the institutional memory associated with the Santa Casa da Misericórdia.
Methodologically, the author conducts a critical reading of literary and historiographic mediation, discussing the controversy sparked by Fr. Manuel Teixeira’s positions against the alleged implausibility of the novel. At the same time, the common traits between the character and the referent—her status as a foster orphan, her relationship with Thomas Kuyck Van Mierop, and her donations to charitable institutions—are compared with elements lacking documentary proof, such as the supposed prostitution or the narrative of abandonment.
It is concluded that, although Coates amplified gaps and inaccuracies, the novel functioned as a device for identity recovery and the circulation of memory, encouraging a revision of sources and a distinction between a literarily constructed “possible life” and a historically verifiable life. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |