Global Impact of the Portuguese Language

Description

Within the cultural and literary context of contemporary Portugal and Western literature, 1998 was unquestionably the year that Portuguese writing gained international recognition as JosU Saramago became the first Portuguese writer ever to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. Readers who had never thought about Portuguese letters began to consume his books and, most importantly, opted for expanding their reading lists to include other important writers not only from Portugal, but from Portuguese-speaking well beyond the borders of Portugal. Global Impact of the Portuguese Language is a collection of Portuguese writing that is as rich in content and broad in scope as the diversity of its topics and writing modes of its contributors. The book is divided into three major parts. Part 1, "Different Cultural Perspectives of Portuguese Writing," contains thirteen chapters in which the first and opening one, "Portugal: The New Frontier" ably sets the stage for the book by examining from a cultural perspective how Portugal, a peripheral country in the new world system, serves as a microcosm of the problems of cultural intercommunication in today's world. Subsequent chapters are grouped in three categories: "The Voices of the Writers," "Critical Approaches to Cames," and "Fictionalizing the Nation." Part 2, "Portuguese Language and Literature Outside Portugal," comprises one section devoted to the Portuguese language in Africa, followed by studies about Portuguese discoveries as part of the historical process of remembering and forging one's identity, and finally a comprehensive historical development of Portuguese writing, both in Portuguese and English, in the United States. Part 3, "Portuguese Literature and Criticism Available in English: Suggested Readings" details the recent literary happenings which point to a possible renaissance in Portuguese literary production. The concluding part of this volume offers a short, comprehensive listing of anthologies, general studies, and the most popular translations of the best of Portuguese writing from Portugal and Africa. This lively volume constitutes a first pioneering effort to contribute to a deepening appreciation and understanding of Portuguese writing. Anyone interested in ethnic writing will find this book an invaluable education resource with which to begin an exploration of Portuguese writing in the United States. Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction • Asela Rodríguez de Laguna Part 1: Different Cultural Perspectives of Portuguese Writing 1. Portugal: The New Frontier • Helder M. Macedo The Voices of the Writers 2. Distance Sounds (Some Portuguese Fiction) • Almeida Faria 3. The Golden Impossibility • Hélia Correia 4. Curse of the Left Testicle: Histories of Womanhood from Antiquity to the Scientific Revolution • Clara Pinto Correia 5. My Hunt for King Sebastiao: How We Invite Miracles into Art and Everyday Life • Katherine Vaz Critical Approaches to Camdes 6. Exile under Fire: Reassessing the Poetics and Practice of Manuel de Faria e Sousa • John de Oliveira e Silva 7. First Encounters: Epic, Gender and the Portuguese Overseas Venture • René P. Garay Fictionalizing the Nation 8. Literature Transactions: How Students Respond to the Epic The Lusiads • Luísa Araújo 9. Maria Iconoclast’s American Adventure in Viagens d ’Altina (1790): Ideological Fictions • Christopher C. Lund 10. Nineteenth-Century Portuguese Novelist Eça de Queirós (1845–1900): From Realism/Naturalism to an “Aesthetics of Imperfection” • Frank F. Sousa 12. Construction of Identity in Portuguese Contemporary Narrative • José N. Ornelas 13. Invitation to the Voyage • Paulo de Medeiros Part 2: Portuguese Language and Writing Outside Portugal Lusophone Languages and Literary Expressions 14 Vernacular, Literary, Vehicular, and Official: The Portuguese Language in Africa • Russell G. Hamilton 15 Portugal Revisited, Brazil Rediscovered • César Braga-Pinto 16. The Post-Colonial Mozambican Fiction • Ana Mafalda Leite 17. Revolutionary Utopias and the Imagined Nation in the Narratives of Pepetela • Phyllis A. Peres Portuguese-American Literature 18. Songs of Fate: Portuguese Writing in America • Katherine Vaz 19. Two Decades of Luso-American Literature: An Overview • Onésimo T. Almeida Part 3: Bibliography 20. Portuguese Literature and Criticism Available in English: Suggested Readings Contributors Index