Abstract
Inspired by Barbora Bieylonovič's exhibition "Ticho! ...pssst!" (Silence! ...pssst), which searches for moments when it is better to remain silent, I decided to search for silence in the novel The Painter of Birds (O Vale da Paixão) by Lídia Jorge. When analysing the Portuguese environment, I focused mainly on one aspect of silence, i.e. being silent, and the different forms it can take.
The protagonist of the book lives a double life and is under the influence of the patriarchal society and the repressions imposed by the totalitarian state under Salazarism. Due to being born outside of marriage, the nameless heroine of The Painter of Birds is forced to simultaneously play the role of daughter and niece, call her father uncle and build her identity from fragments of information she uncovers about her family one piece at a time.
However, for the protagonist silence is not just a limitation, it also represents a refuge and setting of safe boundaries. At the end of the paper, I aimed to either support or reject one of the ideas expressed by Bieylonovič - namely that "silence might not exist at all".