The drowning of time : ecological catastrophe, dialectics, and allegorical realism in João Paulo Borges Coelho's 'Ponta Gea' and 'Água: uma novela rural'

João Paulo Borges Coelho’s latest novel, Ponta Gea (2017), is an intense process of working through memory that starts by positing memory itself as water. Água: Uma novela rural [Water: A Rural Tale] (2016) is a prolonged reflection on the contradictions of Mozambican society as it undergoes rapid and drastic changes related both to modernity and to climate change. The two texts draw on some of the author’s established preoccupations, themes and images, focused on the crucial function of water. Not only in terms of their content, but also due to their formal experimentations, the novels constitute daring interventions in Mozambican and Lusophone literature. This chapter discusses the novels in terms of their engagement with ecological issues, dialectics, memory, and technology. It also analyses the novels’ formal aspects, from the question of (magical) realism to the various processes of allegorizing deployed