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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Perscrutando várias obras que tratam o tema do colonialismo e da guerra colonial
portuguesa, de entre elas sublinhando a obra de António Lobo Antunes, concluímos não haver uma
epopeia que cante, como Os Lusíadas o fazem, o papel do português que combateu nessa guerra.
Talvez essa falha de representação (conectada com a urgência em denegar e obliterar as memórias
de um tempo em que um país, cuja posição europeia era subalterna, só em África se pensava
próspero) derive do facto de o jovem português mobilizado para as colónias africanas não ter tido um
papel linear. Efectivamente, a sua acção foi pautada por um desempenho dual, entre a
prosperização e o alquebramento de um regime que, por um lado, se sustentava na guerra e, por
outro, falhará exactamente através dela. O combatente português desliza para uma hesitação
identitária ao nível pessoal e, sobretudo, social, parcialmente resolvida através de um bestiário onde
se incluem o lobo e, sobretudo, o cão (imagens que alegorizam a transformação sofrida pelos jovens
combatentes). Propomos, pois, que tenha sido na guerra colonial que melhor se tenham espelhado
tais binómios: a) a experiência agónica que animaliza (ou canibaliza) o soldado; b) a experiência
enquanto conhecimento que o leva a reavaliar a sua identidade individual e, extrapolando, a
identidade colectiva.
Reading some of the works on colonialism and the Portuguese colonial war, stressing, among them, the work of António Lobo Antunes, we figure that there is no epic text which sings, like Camoes does in The Lusiads, the role of the contemporary Portuguese soldier. As a matter of fact, in democracy Portugal intended to deny and forget the memories of its colonial past. The Portuguese soldier didn’t have a straight role, though he represents both sides: on the one hand, the Portuguese regime and his will to stick to an image of a great nation, besides Europe’s different concept and the weakness of that regime which was running out of time, on the other hand. So, his performance stays between prosperity and lack of strength, which leads us into an identity hesitation, solved only by a bestiary in which we must include the wolf and, most of all, the dog. We suggest that it is during the Portuguese colonial war that we can find the binomial forces that explain those issues: a) the agony of men (transformed in a cannibal), suffering, changing and doubting of himself, b) which is also the agony of a collective time.
Reading some of the works on colonialism and the Portuguese colonial war, stressing, among them, the work of António Lobo Antunes, we figure that there is no epic text which sings, like Camoes does in The Lusiads, the role of the contemporary Portuguese soldier. As a matter of fact, in democracy Portugal intended to deny and forget the memories of its colonial past. The Portuguese soldier didn’t have a straight role, though he represents both sides: on the one hand, the Portuguese regime and his will to stick to an image of a great nation, besides Europe’s different concept and the weakness of that regime which was running out of time, on the other hand. So, his performance stays between prosperity and lack of strength, which leads us into an identity hesitation, solved only by a bestiary in which we must include the wolf and, most of all, the dog. We suggest that it is during the Portuguese colonial war that we can find the binomial forces that explain those issues: a) the agony of men (transformed in a cannibal), suffering, changing and doubting of himself, b) which is also the agony of a collective time.
Description
Keywords
Bestiário Guerra colonial portuguesa Cão Caliban Canibal
Citation
Cardoso, Norberto do Vale Loureiro Teixeira (2018). Bestiário da Literatura da Guerra Colonial Portuguesa. Revista Desassossego. ISSN 2175-3180. 10:19, p. 59-75
Publisher
Universidade de São Paulo