exile, diaspora, anti-colonialism and national literature in Africa

UID/HIS/04666/2013This text aims to try to prove that editions connected with exiled people, the Diasporas and Portuguese literature written in various parts of the world played a relevant role in contemporaneous Ibero-American culture and publishing activity. The starting point was the hypothesis that exiled people and Diasporas, with their legacies and interchanges, are a privileged area for a transnational history, which mixes cultures and the history of the book. To test the idea, research was aimed at the analysis of the relationships among Portugal, Brazil and Portuguese African colonies during the 1960s, a decade of significant political, cultural and social changes. The attention was centred in five features: 1) the anti-Salazar nets in Brazil; 2) other Luso-Brazilian connections; 3) political pressure for Portuguese African Colonies emancipation; 4) the long historical Luso-African-Brazilian relationship; 5) the Brazilian exile. Research led to the evidence that Lusographic editions transformed itself, despite the difficulties set particularly by Portuguese and Brazilian dictatorships. It was confirmed how it was involved in several world issues, namely in international anti-colonial resistance and in the circulation of texts and ideas. Lusographic editions also contributed to the springing of national literature releasing them from metropolitan tutelage and mobilising them to the widespread resistance, as can be observed in Angolan history. In that period publishing was marked by the urgency of national political causes and by all-embracing narratives (integrating political, social and cultural issues), namely various Marxist trends and influencing the fashion of essays and engaged literature.authorsversionpublishe