Postcolonial Nation and Narration Project (2007-2011) CESA/FCT
FCT – PTDC/AFR/68941/2006
The Postcolonial Nation and Narration Project analysed the representations of the nation and identities proposed by the Angolan and Mozambican postcolonial narratives. For this purpose, two types of corpus were used: textual (narratives) and paratextual (interviews, testimonies), produced in the last years since the date of the independence of these Portuguese-speaking African countries (1975). It seemed important to think critically about identity, images and imaginaries of the idea of the nation. The objectives of the Project were, firstly, to characterize the Representations of the Nation in the Angolan and Mozambican postcolonial literary narratives, in line with the chosen corpus and with the three following topics: Images/Themes of the colonial and pre-colonial History and Memory; Images/Themes of Location and Dislocation: Travel and Diaspora; Discursive Strategies: Genres/Canons. Secondly, that work was articulated with the Interviews with Writers and Intellectuals from these two countries, in a way to put into dialogue different representations of the Nation. The description and the following conceptualization of the three above-mentioned topics - which involve spatial and temporal decentring and make use of ethnographic discourse, historical narrative, invention and analysis of nostalgic pasts, deconstruction and revision of the colonial memory, and projection of transnational, diasporic or migrant spaces - allowed the researchers of this project to unveil the processes and strategies used to represent the nation in textual narratives which challenge essentialist ideological representations and propose new ideological construction creating different post-national and postcolonial identity projections.
Publications of this Project:
A thematic issue of the journal Via Atlântica, n17- USP- São Paulo
Two books, one of essays and another of interviews:
Nação e Narrativa Pós-Colonial: Angola e Moçambique I Ensaios, orgs. Ana Mafalda Leite, Hilary Owen, Rita Chaves, Livia Apa). Lisboa: Colibri, 2012
Nação e Narrativa Pós-Colonial: Angola e Moçambique II - Entrevistas a Escritores Angolanos e Moçambicanos, orgs. Ana Mafalda Leite, Sheila Khan, Jessica Falconi, Kamila Krakowska, Lisboa, Colibri, 2012.
Several articles were published in journals and presented at national and international conferences and seminars.
Team of the NNPC Project
Coordenation: Ana Mafalda Leite (FLUL/CEsA)
Consultants: Hilary Owen (The University of Manchester) e Iain Chambers (Universita degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale)
Members: Jessica Falconi (CEsA), Kamila Krakowska (CEsA), Livia Apa (Universita degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale), Rita Chaves (USP), Sheila Khan (Universidade do Minho)
