The heart of the metropole: urban space and interracial relationships in ‘Fidelidade’ by Vimala Devi, ‘Um encontro imprevisto’ by Henrique de Senna Fernandes and ‘Nina’ by Orlanda Amarílis

This article looks at the Lisbon-set stories ‘Fidelidade’ by Vimala Devi, ‘Um encontro imprevisto’ by Henrique de Senna Fernandes, and ‘Nina’ by Orlanda Amarílis, all of which dramatize a dead-end relationship between a colonized man and a metropolitan woman in the final years of Portuguese colonialism. It analyses how these narratives use the resources of the short story to challenge the colonial discourse of Lusotropicalism, dominant in Portugal in the years following the Second World War. Via the spatial and interpersonal deixis of their ‘intermediate elite’ protagonists, these narratives inscribe the experience of colonized subjects on the margins of the imperial capital and reflect on the dynamics of identity in their home territories. The article concludes by arguing for a broad comparative practice that can bring a much-needed perspectivism to key issues in postcolonial studies in Portuguese and animate neglected parts of the worldwide Portuguese-language literary archive