Shipwrecked empires : on the Transatlantic Image-nary of Ships and Shadows
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Data
2013
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Edições Universitárias Lusófonas
Resumo
Naufrágios, tanto quanto a navegação em si, sempre fascinaram, entreteram e aterrorizam gerações de viajantes reais e imaginários. Para os
marinheiros tanto quanto para os ávidos devoradores de seus contos e angústias, o navio inspira, inseparavelmente, sonhos e pesadelos. O mar é um elemento sagrado e misterioso que gera um fascínio popular generalizado,
e as histórias contadas sobre ele maculam a memória de muitos com imagens,
mas poucas explicações, de sobrevivência, mistério e morte.
Eu analisarei como, do ‘naufrágio’ do colonialismo, das profundezas do Império levantaram-se nas ex-colônias de Portugal espectros
tanto do naufrágio e quanto do desencalhe de identidades, histórias, e as
histórias em geral, através de seu uso na literatura e no cinema, em uma
memória coletiva do navio como uma representação do passado, presente
e futuro dessas mesmas nações. Neste contexto, segundo o professor Paulo
de Medeiros (2005), o naufrágio é “uma figura especial para variadas memórias pós-coloniais”, e suas negociações.
Focando principalmente no Brasil e em Angola em relação à
história da expansão Portuguesa e suas marcas culturais, institucionais e
políticas (Lusotopia), eu explorarei temas e tendências a partir de estudos recentes, como O Atlântico Pardo de Miguel Vale de Almeida (2006) - uma “designação irônica [aludindo ao Atlântico Negro de Paul Gilroy] para o
mundo criado durante o império Português, ou mais precisamente, a
mais vasta narrativa hegemônica do suposto projeto miscigenação Português” (109); e as conexões analógas entre o navio que afunda e o império,
uma vez à tona, caiu.
Shipwreck, as much as navigation itself, has always fascinated, amused and terrified generations of travellers both real and imaginary. For the sailors as for the avid home-bound devourers of their tales and travails, the ship inspires, inseparably, dreams and nightmares. The sea is an ever-sacred and mysterious element generating popular widespread fascination, and the stories told about it stain many a memory with images, but nary an explanation, of mystery, survival and death. I am analysing how, out of the ‘wreck’ of Colonialism, the subsequent emergence from the depths of the Empire has raised in Portugal’s ex-colonies spectres of both the sinking and the refloating of identities, histories, and stories at large, through its depiction in literature and cinema, into a collective memory of the ship as a representation of the past, present and future of those same nations. In this context, the shipwreck is “a special figure for varied postcolonial memories” (Medeiros 2005), and negotiations. Focusing primarily on Brazil and Angola in relation to the history of the Portuguese expansion and its cultural, institutional and political imprints (Lusotopia), I explore themes and trends from recent studies such as Miguel Vale de Almeida’s O Atlântico Pardo (2006) – an “ironic designation [alluding to Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic] to the world created during the Portuguese empire, or more precisely, the vaster hegemonic narrative of the supposed Portuguese miscegenation project” (109), and the analogical connections between the ship which sinks and the once afloat empire which has fallen.
Shipwreck, as much as navigation itself, has always fascinated, amused and terrified generations of travellers both real and imaginary. For the sailors as for the avid home-bound devourers of their tales and travails, the ship inspires, inseparably, dreams and nightmares. The sea is an ever-sacred and mysterious element generating popular widespread fascination, and the stories told about it stain many a memory with images, but nary an explanation, of mystery, survival and death. I am analysing how, out of the ‘wreck’ of Colonialism, the subsequent emergence from the depths of the Empire has raised in Portugal’s ex-colonies spectres of both the sinking and the refloating of identities, histories, and stories at large, through its depiction in literature and cinema, into a collective memory of the ship as a representation of the past, present and future of those same nations. In this context, the shipwreck is “a special figure for varied postcolonial memories” (Medeiros 2005), and negotiations. Focusing primarily on Brazil and Angola in relation to the history of the Portuguese expansion and its cultural, institutional and political imprints (Lusotopia), I explore themes and trends from recent studies such as Miguel Vale de Almeida’s O Atlântico Pardo (2006) – an “ironic designation [alluding to Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic] to the world created during the Portuguese empire, or more precisely, the vaster hegemonic narrative of the supposed Portuguese miscegenation project” (109), and the analogical connections between the ship which sinks and the once afloat empire which has fallen.
Descrição
Babilónia : Revista Lusófona de Línguas, Culturas e Tradução
Palavras-chave
LITERATURA LUSÓFONA, LUSOPHONE LITERATURE, PÓS-COLONIALISMO, POSTCOLONIALISM, IDENTIDADE NACIONAL, NATIONAL IDENTITY, CINEMA, CINEMA, HISTÓRIA DE PORTUGAL, HISTORY OF PORTUGAL, DESCOBRIMENTOS PORTUGUESES, PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES, LUSOFONIA, LUSOPHONY, ANÁLISE LITERÁRIA, LITERARY ANALYSIS