A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho: Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains (Reconfiguring Identities in the Portuguese-Speaking World) PDF
Preview A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho: Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains (Reconfiguring Identities in the Portuguese-Speaking World)
RECONFIGURING IDENTITIES IN THE aE nle P O R T U G U E S E - S P E A K I N G W O R L D dn Pa a B ur lou g dio ‘This companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho’s historical and fi ctional work, the en fi rst of its kind in English, represents an inestimable and decisive contribution to Mei, O scholarship on the work of one of the most prominent writers from Mozambique. dr It will be an indispensable help in teaching any of Borges Coelho’s works and in ela irn addressing their postcolonial political dimension.’ od so — Professor Jerónimo Pizarro, University of the Andes, Colombia (e G dr ‘Since 2003, Mozambican author João Paulo Borges Coelho has produced a so )s rich corpus of fi ction that delivers a nuanced portrait of his country’s past and its s e present. This comprehensive volume, which includes an English translation of one g e of his stories, performs an invaluable service by situating Borges Coelho’s work in s s a national and transnational context. The various theoretical approaches presented e , here successfully establish Borges Coelho as one of the leading contemporary authors of the Portuguese-speaking world.’ — Professor Ellen W. Sapega, University of Wisconsin – Madison This companion offers a critical overview of a great part of the literary oeuvre of the A acclaimed Mozambican writer and historian João Paulo Borges Coelho. It focuses on Elena Brugioni, Orlando Grossegesse, C a multiplicity of elements central to his literary project, underscoring the originality o and complexity of one of the most prominent authors from the Portuguese-speaking m and Paulo de Medeiros (eds) world. With contributions from scholars hailing from different academic disciplines p a including history, this collection offers a compelling and original reading of Borges n Coelho’s fi ctional work, engaging with current critical debates in the fi elds of literary io A Companion to theory, postcolonial studies, world-literature, and eco-criticism. The book advances n new critical paths within Portuguese-speaking literary studies from a comparative to perspective. At the same time it is addressed to a variety of scholars and advanced J students in other, related fi elds. oã João Paulo Borges o P Elena Brugioni is Assistant Professor in African literatures and postcolonial theory a u Coelho in the Department of Literary Theory at the University of Campinas (Brazil) and l Lecturer in the Graduate Program in Literary Theory and History at Unicamp. o B Orlando Grossegesse is Professor of German and Comparative Literary Studies at o the Institute of Arts and Humanities at the University of Minho (Braga). rg e Paulo de Medeiros is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the s Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains University of Warwick. C o e l h o www.peterlang.com Peter Lang 9781787079861_cvr.indd 2,4 03-Mar-20 17:59:28 RECONFIGURING IDENTITIES IN THE aE nle P O R T U G U E S E - S P E A K I N G W O R L D dn Pa a B ur lou g dio ‘This companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho’s historical and fi ctional work, the en fi rst of its kind in English, represents an inestimable and decisive contribution to Mei, O scholarship on the work of one of the most prominent writers from Mozambique. dr It will be an indispensable help in teaching any of Borges Coelho’s works and in ela irn addressing their postcolonial political dimension.’ od so — Professor Jerónimo Pizarro, University of the Andes, Colombia (e G dr ‘Since 2003, Mozambican author João Paulo Borges Coelho has produced a so )s rich corpus of fi ction that delivers a nuanced portrait of his country’s past and its s e present. This comprehensive volume, which includes an English translation of one g e of his stories, performs an invaluable service by situating Borges Coelho’s work in s s a national and transnational context. The various theoretical approaches presented e , here successfully establish Borges Coelho as one of the leading contemporary authors of the Portuguese-speaking world.’ — Professor Ellen W. Sapega, University of Wisconsin – Madison This companion offers a critical overview of a great part of the literary oeuvre of the A acclaimed Mozambican writer and historian João Paulo Borges Coelho. It focuses on Elena Brugioni, Orlando Grossegesse, C a multiplicity of elements central to his literary project, underscoring the originality o and complexity of one of the most prominent authors from the Portuguese-speaking m and Paulo de Medeiros (eds) world. With contributions from scholars hailing from different academic disciplines p a including history, this collection offers a compelling and original reading of Borges n Coelho’s fi ctional work, engaging with current critical debates in the fi elds of literary io A Companion to theory, postcolonial studies, world-literature, and eco-criticism. The book advances n new critical paths within Portuguese-speaking literary studies from a comparative to perspective. At the same time it is addressed to a variety of scholars and advanced J students in other, related fi elds. oã João Paulo Borges o P Elena Brugioni is Assistant Professor in African literatures and postcolonial theory a u Coelho in the Department of Literary Theory at the University of Campinas (Brazil) and l Lecturer in the Graduate Program in Literary Theory and History at Unicamp. o B Orlando Grossegesse is Professor of German and Comparative Literary Studies at o the Institute of Arts and Humanities at the University of Minho (Braga). rg e Paulo de Medeiros is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the s Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains University of Warwick. C o e l h o www.peterlang.com Peter Lang 9781787079861_cvr.indd 2,4 03-Mar-20 17:59:28 A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho R E C O N F I G U R I N G I D E N T I T I E S I N T H E P O R T U G U E S E - S P E A K I N G W O R L D Edited by Paulo de Medeiros and Cláudia Pazos-Alonso Vol. 14 PETER LANG Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • New York • Wien Elena Brugioni, Orlando Grossegesse, and Paulo de Medeiros (eds) A Companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho Rewriting the (Post)Colonial Remains PETER LANG Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • New York • Wien Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Brugioni, Elena, editor. | Grossegesse, Orlando, editor. | Medeiros, Paulo de, 1958- editor. Title: A companion to João Paulo Borges Coelho : rewriting the (post)colonial remains / edited by Elena Brugioni, Orlando Grossegesse and Paulo de Medeiros. Description: Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2019057274 (print) | LCCN 2019057275 (ebook) | ISBN 9781787079861 (paperback) | ISBN 9781787079878 (ebook) | ISBN 9781787079885 (epub) | ISBN 9781787079892 (mobi) Subjects: LCSH: Coelho, João Paulo Borges—Criticism and interpretation. Classification: LCC PQ9939.C64 Z65 2019 (print) | LCC PQ9939.C64 (ebook) | DDC 869.3/5—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057274 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019057275 Cover image: Tommaso Rada. Cover design: Peter Lang Ltd. ISSN 2235-0144 ISBN 978-1-78707-986-1 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78707-987-8 (ePDF) ISBN 978-1-78707-988-5 (ePub) • ISBN 978-1-78707-989-2 (mobi) © Peter Lang AG 2020 Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers, 52 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, United Kingdom [email protected], www.peterlang.com Elena Brugioni, Orlando Grossegesse, and Paulo de Medeiros have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this Work. All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. Contents Elena Brugioni, Orlando Grossegesse, and Paulo de Medeiros Introduction 1 João Paulo Borges Coelho: A Short Biography 9 João Paulo Borges Coelho 1 The Enchanted Cloth 11 Paolo Israel 2 The Archive and the Fable: Trajectory of a Mozambican Historian 37 Nazir Ahmed Can 3 Poetics and Politics of Memory: Notes on João Paulo Borges Coelho’s Novels 69 Ana Mafalda Leite 4 Narratives of the Indian Ocean in the Writing of João Paulo Borges Coelho: A Transnational Geography 91 Rui Gonçalves Miranda 5 History, Literature, and the Indices of the Ocean: Force of Signification in Borges Coelho’s ‘A força do mar de Agosto’ 107 vi Contents Jessica Falconi 6 The Tourism Imaginary in Hinyambaan 131 Orlando Grossegesse 7 A Parody of Final Redemption: The Uses of Geopolitical Fiction in O Olho de Hertzog 151 Elena Brugioni 8 Of Clues, Traces, and Minor Histories: Theorizing the Genre of Historical Novel in Rainhas da Noite 179 Emanuelle Santos 9 Towards a World-Literary Aesthetics of Postcolonial Memory: Rainhas da Noite by João Paulo Borges Coelho 203 Paulo de Medeiros 10 The Drowning of Time: Ecological Catastrophe, Dialectics, and Allegorical Realism in João Paulo Borges Coelho’s Ponta Gea and Água: Uma novela rural 219 Notes on Contributors 249 Index 255 Elena Brugioni, Orlando Grossegesse, and Paulo de Medeiros Introduction This book proposes a critical overview of the literary work published by the Mozambican writer João Paulo Borges Coelho. It focuses on different aspects of his biography and literary project and underscores the ori- ginality and complexity of one of the most prominent authors from the Portuguese-speaking world. With the contribution of scholars from different academic contexts and fields of study in the Humanities, the volume offers a compelling and original reading of Borges Coelho’s historical and fictional work, engaging with current critical debates in the fields of comparative literatures, literary theory, and postcolonial studies, and therefore puts forward new critical paths within the Portuguese-speaking literary field, as well as comparative insights for scholars and students of the Humanities at large. The book represents the first monograph published in English1 dedicated to the fictional work of João Paulo Borges Coelho, and therefore an important bibliographical source for scholars from the Anglophone world, offering new comparative possibilities within the fields of Lusophone literary studies and African literatures. Considering the increasing academic interest in Borges Coelho’s lit- erary work, especially within Portuguese-speaking contexts, but also in Anglophone and Francophone universities, we believe that this publication will fill an important gap, as well as hopefully contributing to the dissem- ination of Borges Coelho’s literary work in English-speaking contexts. In this regard, the short story ‘O pano encantado’ [The Enchanted Cloth],2 1 There are already two books published in Portuguese entirely dedicated to the literary work of João Paulo Borges Coelho: Nazir Ahmed Can, Discurso e poder nos romances de João Paulo Borges Coelho (Maputo: Alcance Editores, 2014), and Sheila Khan, Sandra Sousa, Leonor Simas-Almeida, Isabel A. Ferreira Gould and Nazir Ahmed Can, eds, Visitas a João Paulo Borges Coelho: leituras, diálogos e futuros (Lisboa: Colibri, 2017). 2 Included in Índicos indícios – Setentrião (Lisboa: Caminho, 2005). 2 Elena Brugioni et al. translated by David Brookshaw, that opens the volume gives the reader a taste of the valuable and original literary project developed by Borges Coelho, whose translation into English will undeniably add an important voice to the polyphony of the Portuguese-speaking literary canon already published in English, and possibly promote new critical readings of Borges Coelho, such as the one recently consolidated by the Warwick Research Collective on World-Literature.3 A publication composed by a selection of essays by diverse hands always and inevitably raises many problems and questions, particularly when the aim is crossing linguistic, academic and editorial boundaries, involving scholars usually working in a field still deeply defined by its linguistic iden- tity, and therefore posing a number of issues: from the scarcity of resources dedicated to the translation of academic essays, to personal or professional impediments or the challenge of publishing a book on an author barely known in English-speaking contexts. Therefore, as usual, the final result is not quite that which had been initially conceived and discussed by us when the project was initiated. Yet, in spite of, or rather thanks to, the many changes and adjustments the project underwent along the way, the book represents what we view as a strong contribution to scholarship on the work of João Paulo Borges Coelho. For this we would like to express our deep and sincere gratitude to the authors who willingly accepted to join the project, honouring with their contributions a writer and a person that we all hold in high regard. *** If the literary work of João Paulo Borges Coelho does not provide easy answers, neither does it pose uncomplicated questions. As shown by the chapters in this volume, the author and his work hardly fit the established labels that frequently shape the language of our time, especially within an academic context. Since 2003, Borges Coelho has published eleven books – seven novels, a collection of short stories, and three novellas – all deeply engaged with different moments and places of Mozambican 3 WReC, Combined and Uneven Development. Towards a New Theory of World- Literature (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015).
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