Category: Paulo César Vieira Figueira-en

José Agostinho Baptista

Posted on 1 de April, 2023 | By caparicio

“For you I arrived and leave./My home is where you are” (Baptista, 1992: 9). In José Agostinho Baptista the dimension of the island-place opens up to the reader’s world, through personal conundrums. With an insular vocation – physical and spiritual – the subject presents itself as a wandering geography, measured by the mountains, the sea or the silence of primordial Madeira. The island moves like a home through other geographical mosaics.

With a pronounced mnemonic mark, the departure and arrival of this poetry will always be that idyllic place, between the romantic “locus amoenus” and “locus horribilis”, cohabited by the sea, by the father, by love and, above all, by the island-subject, in the sense of a non-place, becoming the place “where you are”. The writing process of José Agostinho Baptista, with a tendency to recover a romantic model, “is not only the process of the feeling or of the memory, it is the writing process itself that becomes a book ” (Magalhães, 1989: 256).

Born in Funchal (August 15th, 1948), José Agostinho Baptista is recognised as one of the most important Portuguese poets of his generation. For a long period of his life, he lived in Lisbon, having been a translator of essential authors, such as W. B. Yeats or Walt Whitman, and a journalist, in various newspapers of the Portuguese capital, A República and Diário de Lisboa. Previously he collaborated with Comércio do Funchal. Some time ago he returned to Madeira.

To approach José Agostinho Baptista, we must speak of his telluric relationship with Madeira, rarely harmonious, but simultaneously, of a clear dependence. We believe that the island is the path of a poetics marked by the search/epiphany of the subject’s identity, full of its insular mark, the telluric drive. There is a clear identification of the poetic subject/island with an initiatory journey through the nostalgia of a primordial, pure and suffering love.

For Ana Margarida Falcão Seixas, José Agostinho Baptista reveals a strong presence of nostalgia in his writing that “tells, in various episodes and in different narrative dimensions, the exile of a subject in himself, body and mind unfolded in multiple variants that sacralize the dream, the reverie and the traces of the past, providing the enunciation of representations essentially derived from absence” (Seixas, 2003: 398), which combined with the telluric dimension reveals the islander feeling. The telluric drive, verbalized in the sentimental entwining between subject and island, “He was an island, the endless basalt” (Baptista, 1992: 19), scales the perspective of insularity in themes dear to Portuguese literature, such as exile, unrequited love, madness/reverie, nostalgia and memory.

The father figure, linked to the memory of the primordial island, is also another leitmotif, as is the case in Agora e na hora da nossa morte, “Nobody shuts up the stormy rivers deep/in my eyes,/when I think of the worms, the viscosities/which seek you through the satin” (Baptista, 1998: 102), a long (non-)prayer until the final “Amen”, or in poems like “Memória”, in Deste lado onde.

Other places take over the face of this primordial island, the most significant being Mexico: “Mexico, which is characterised by its most perennial essence, its gods, its parallel tattoos, which, in the symbolic and metaphorical universe of the “I”, configure this new land of the fathers, a vast homeland, where the “I” spreads its imaginary, in the romantic perspective of vastness and of recreating the originality of the first island”1 .

José Tolentino Mendonça speaks of the poetry of José Agostinho Baptista as fundamental to the understanding of Madeira, “the roughness of its time, the unbridled rapture of the landscape, the tireless streams, the mystery of the fruits, the helpless truth of its silence”2, because “The island is all the land. And, in the dark secret of its name, it holds the most significant ambivalence”3.

Of José Agostinho Baptista’s books, we highlight: Deste lado onde (1976), O último romântico (1981), Morrer no sul (1983), Autoretrato (1986), O centro do universo (1989), Paixão e cinzas (1992), Canções da terra distante (1994), Debaixo do azul sobre o vulcão (1995), Agora e na hora da nossa morte (1998), Biografia (2000), Afectos (2002), Anjos caídos (2003), Esta voz é quase vento (2004), Quatro luas (2006), Filho pródigo (2008), O pai, a mãe e o silêncio dos irmãos (2009) and Caminharei pelo vale da sombra (2011).

The public recognition of his work includes distinctions such as: the Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (2001 – Presidency of the Republic) and the Medal of Distinction awarded on the day of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (2015 – Regional Government of Madeira). Other prizes worth mentioning are the Pen Club – Poetry (2003), for Anjos Caídos, and the Grand Prize for Poetry CTT – Correios de Portugal (2004), for Esta Voz é Quase o Vento.

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

[1] Paulo Figueira (2020). José Agostinho Baptista, “le sentiment de soi”. In TRANSLOCAL. Culturas Contemporâneas Locais e Urbanas, nº 5.

Digital access: https://translocal.cm-funchal.pt/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/JoseAgostinhoBaptista-le-sentiment-de-soit5.pdf. Vd. José Agostinho Baptista, Debaixo do azul sobre o vulcão.

2 José Tolentino Mendonça, “Um sopro, uma leve pancada no coração”, in A Phala nº 81. Digital access: https://joseagostinhobaptista.com/a-phala.html.

3 José Tolentino Mendonça, “Um sopro, uma leve pancada no coração”, in A Phala nº 81. Digital access: https://joseagostinhobaptista.com/a-phala.html.

Bibliography

Falcão, Ana Margarida (2011). O Funchal na poesia insular do séc. XV ao séc. XX. In Funchal (d)escrito: ensaios sobre representações literárias da cidade. Vila Nova de Gaia: 7 Dias 6 Noites, 77-113.

Figueira, Paulo (2020). José Agostinho Baptista, “le sentiment de soi”. In TRANSLOCAL. Culturas Contemporâneas Locais e Urbanas, nº 5. Funchal: UMa-CIERL/CMF/IA. Digital access:

https://translocal.cm-funchal.pt/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/JoseAgostinhoBaptista-le-sentiment-de-soit5.pdf.

Consulted on 21-Dec-2021.

Figueira, Paulo (2008). Percursos da subjetividade pós-modernista: um contributo para a análise das poéticas de José Agostinho Baptista e Eduardo White [masters dissertation]. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira.

Magalhães, Joaquim Manuel (1989). Um pouco da morte. Lisboa: Presença.

Mendonça, José Tolentino (2000). Um sopro, uma leve pancada no coração. In A Phala – José Agostinho Baptista, nº 81. Digital access: https://joseagostinhobaptista.com/a-phala.html. Consulted on 21-Dec-2021.

Seixas, Ana Margarida Falcão (2003). Os Novos Shâmanes. Um Contributo para o Estudo da Narratividade na Poesia Portuguesa mais recente [dissertation]. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira.

Viagens, de João dos Reis Gomes

Posted on 24 de November, 2022 | By caparicio

Viagens appears in the travel literature of Madeiran authors as the posthumous compilation of three works by João dos Reis Gomes, Através da França, Suíça e Itália, Três Capitais de Espanha and Através da Alemanha. The particularity of this work is that could be understood as an exemplar of travel literature by a Madeiran author about trips made outside the insular space or the portuguese space.

We believe that this type of travel literature produced by authors from Madeira who travel to continental spaces allows, in the case of João dos Reis Gomes, the opening of another research suggestion that is the vision of the European continental space by an islander from a territory of the current European outermost region. The texts by João dos Reis Gomes also suggest the interpretation of the tourist phenomenon at the beginning of the 20th century, linked to religious, leisure or medicinal and therapeutic reasons, something also experienced in the insular space.

In this context, the testimony of an islander’s journey in a continental space reveals a measure of description characteristic of someone that lives on an island and could measure the world through it, which allows us to envision insularity as an opening to the world.

In Viagens, João dos Reis Gomes, motivated by the knowledge of the other, offers the reader the perspective of the traveling writer and not a simple tourist commentary: “apodera-se do ritmo e da técnica do episódio e do relato histórico, assegurando a cor local, através de um olhar testemunha, subjetivo. Surge, então, a categoria do escritor viajante, com uma dupla função: ser um olhar que escreve e, ao mesmo tempo, um escritor” (Mello, 2010: 145). Regarding the three books that make up the volume Viagens, we talk about an experience resulting from the second Madeiran pilgrimage to European Marian shrines, a leisure trip to Spain and a trip for health and leisure reasons to Germany.

Através da França, Suíça e Itália was published as a book in 1929, based on the chronicles of João dos Reis Gomes first published in the Diário da Madeira, in 1926, the year of the second Madeiran pilgrimage. We think that the second Madeiran pilgrimage is part of the context of the great transnational pilgrimages that take place all over Europe, influenced by the climate of the apparitions of Fátima, of the canonization of Margaret Mary Alacoque, on May 13, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV, and by the large number of pilgrims to the Lourdes cave, a phenomenon of faith, facilitated by Catholic groups.

However, we are talking about a story that is a non religious testimony, because João dos Reis Gomes confesses that he does not feel able to address religious matters and writes because his friends asked him to do so: “Tinham-me alguns amigos pedido, com penhorante insistência, que lhes desse umas breves impressões desta peregrinação” (Reis Gomes, 2020: 23). We believe that one of the main points of interest of this travel testimony is the demonstration of the author’s conservative thinking and the reflections on politics, society and culture, taking into account that João dos Reis Gomes is a military man and an islander who is faced with different ways of being. We can also add a certain admiration for the Italian political order, especially if we are confronted with the events in Portugal and the precarious situation of the First Republic: “O viajante sente a perfeita comunhão do povo com o salvador da Itália [Mussolini]” (Reis Gomes, 2020: 157).

As an island traveler, nostalgia takes hold during some episodes of the author and his entourage, as is the case of the comparison with the Côte d’Azur and the mountains of Switzerland: “O espetáculo [the swiss landscape] é, na verdade, grandioso e comovedoramente evocativo. Ninguém deixou de pensar, mais vivamente, na sua casinha da alterosa ilha” (Reis Gomes, 2020: 195).

Três Capitais de Espanha is the report of a private trip, dedicated to the son of João dos Reis Gomes, Álvaro Reis Gomes, “companheiro nestas digressões” (Reis Gomes, 2020: 227). The journey of the traveling writer is intertwined with Spanish history, from the North, Burgos, through Toledo, conquered by Alfonso VI, to the imperial city of Seville. The traveling writer’s testimony is based on art and culture and the subjectivity of admiration: “Mas, porque escrevo, então?! Primeiro, por uma imposição de espírito ou, melhor, de sensibilidade, que me não deixa conter as emoções colhidas – […]; segundo, porque, dado o direito de admirar, na apreciação de qualquer facto, país ou obra de arte, há sempre um certo fator subjetivo” (Reis Gomes, 2020: 229).

Através da Alemanha is a book of 1949, based on the chronicles first published in Diário da Madeira, in 1931. The purpose of the book edition is to witness to the reader the German civilization before the Second World War: “apenas elementos para um confronto entre o passado [1931] e o presente [1949]; confronto que, por tão desolador como expressivo, oxalá pudesse contribuir – ingénua utopia! – para adoçar a alma e prevenir a consciência” (Reis Gomes, 2020: 283).

In addition to approaching a country far from the European periphery, João dos Reis Gomes’ interests lie in Neubabelsberg, the visit to the UFA studio (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft) and the contemplation of cinematographic art, the ascent of the Rhine (where he found inspiration to his book A Lenda de Loreley, contada por um latino) and the emotion, as journalist and writer, in the visit of Gutenberg’s museum, in Mainz.

For all these reasons, we believe that Viagens is an example of the island traveler writer and the outside perspective he adds to the island world, due to the awareness that these are different worlds. The themes discussed reflect that insularity is part of a global world, in which events that occur in a given space and time are interconnected and act on several other geographic points, whether of a political, cultural, philosophical or scientific nature.

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Collot, Michel (2014). Pour une Géographie Littéraire. Paris: Éditions Corti.

Cristóvão, Fernando (2002). Condicionantes Culturais da Literatura de Viagens. Coimbra: Almedina.

Mello, Maria Elizabeth Chaves de (2010). O relato de viagem – narradores, entre a memória, o fictício e o imaginário. In Dalva Calvão e Norimar Júdice (Org.). Gragoatá, 28. Niterói: Universidade Federal Fluminense. 141-152.

Nucera, Domenico (2002). Los viajes y la literatura. In Armando Gnisci (Org.). Introducción a la Literatura Comparada. Barcelona: Editorial Crítica. 241-290.

Pita, Gabriel de Jesus (1985). Decadência e queda da Primeira República analisada na Imprensa Madeirense da época. In António Loja (Dir.). Atlântico, 3. Funchal: Eurolitho. 194-209.

Reis Gomes, João dos (1949). Através da Alemanha. Lisboa: Livraria Clássica.

Reis Gomes, João dos (1929). Através da França, Suíça e Itália. Lisboa: Livraria Clássica.

Reis Gomes, João dos (1931). Três Capitais de Espanha: Burgos-Toledo-Sevilha. Funchal: Diário da Madeira.

Reis Gomes, João dos (2020). Viagens. Funchal: Imprensa Académica.

Historical Novels – João dos Reis Gomes

Posted on 24 de November, 2022 | By caparicio

The historical novels of João dos Reis Gomes correspond to three titles, A filha de Tristão das Damas (1909 and 1946), O anel do Imperador (1934) and O cavaleiro de Santa Catarina (1942), which focus on political, historical and cultural issues and local traditions. From the point of view of literary technique, these are not innovative novels, clearly influenced by the structure of the romantic historical novel model.

The relationship of these works by João dos Reis Gomes with insularity, specifically with the construction of Madeiran identity, takes place in a perspective in which regionalism and the affirmation of regions begins to be a reality in Europe.

Born in France, in the mid-19th century, regionalism influenced the struggle for emancipation in many regions, including Madeira (Vieira, 2001: 144). The Madeiran intellectual elite sought to legitimize the struggle for greater visibility of the archipelago, through the recovery of historical references, traditions and folkloric traits that supported this insular identity: “Tão pouco uma classe política, alheada ou desconhecedora do passado histórico terá possibilidades de fazer passar e vingar o seu discurso político” (Vieira, 2001: 143).

The insular identity difference starts to be built by the generations of the beginning of the 20th century, emphasizing History, other sciences and Literature: “estas gerações, com evidentes influências regionalistas, procuraram, através da história, da literatura, da ciência, a construção e validação de um panteão regional sobre o qual assentasse uma marca de diferença” (Figueira, 2021: 130)[1].

It is in this context that A filha de Tristão das Damas is published, in 1909. The first self-styled Madeiran historical novel has as its central point the help of the third donee of Funchal, Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, in the conquest of Safim, by Portugal. This motive serves to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Madeira’s intervention, as one of the archipelago’s historical episodes, as well as to present a subtle critique of the administrative autonomy of 1901. The publicity of Portuguese foreign policy’s commitment to the maintenance of the African Empire is also relevant. In fact, in 1946, the date of the second edition of the work, in addition to the regionalist aspect, it is again the assumption of Portugal as a colonial power, outside the sphere of emerging powers (USA and USSR), that guides the publication of this historical novel. In 1962, the novel is published again, but in fascicles by the Diário de Notícias do Funchal, with the aim of defending the Guerra do Ultramar (Overseas War) and the legitimation of the Portuguese Empire.

O anel do Imperador tells the story of Napoleon’s passage through Funchal, during his second exile, this time to the island of Saint Helena. The question of this historical episode allied to the fictional visit of Miss Isabel de S. to the French Emperor created a popular tradition fixed in the novel by João dos Reis Gomes. Behind the fiction there is, however, the propaganda of the figure of Salazar, similar to the episode of Napoleon in Madeira, seeking to present the figure of a sensitive political leader who deserves the acceptance of his Madeiran peers. It should be remembered that, in the 1930s, between the government of the military and the definitive rise of the Estado Novo, the episode of Revolta da Madeira, a political-military insurrection against the government of the military dictatorship, deepened the atmosphere between Madeira and the capital, in addition to the monopoly laws in relation to flour and milk, at the time, important industries in the archipelago.

Salazarism, in its propaganda action, sought to welcome the Madeiran elites into its midst, in a climate of harmony between the archipelago and the Government, in which the regionalist slope was exponentiated according to the homeland.

O cavaleiro de Santa Catarina offers the reader an account of the life and legend of Henrique Alemão, “sesmeiro da Madalena do Mar”, whose identity is believed to be that of Ladislaus III, the Polish king who disappeared in the Battle of Varna (1444).

The author, with this book, in addition to the attempt to preserve a heritage buffeted by the 1939 alluvium in Madalena do Mar, seeks to explore the myth of sebastianism, as there is a clear identification between the life of the Polish king and that of D. Sebastião, because both try to fight the Mohammedans, but end up missing in the decisive battle, the Polish king in Varna and the Portuguese king in Alcácer Quibir.

The circumstances of this historical novel, the 1939 alluvium and the myth of D. Sebastião, are also related to the exhibition of the Portuguese World in 1940 and the celebration of Portuguese double independence (1140 and 1640). Once again, João dos Reis Gomes appropriates a pantheistic figure from Madeira’s history and tradition to serve regionalist intentions and, at the same time, the homeland, which, in a difficult political period, in the middle of the Second World War, seeks to maintain the shaky neutrality in relation to the blocs of the belligerent powers. The sebastic figure of Henrique Alemão, in this context, invokes, in our view, the soul of national resistance and Portuguese courage in a difficult juncture.

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Figueira, Paulo (2021). João dos Reis Gomes: contributo literário para a divulgação da História da Madeira [Phd thesis]. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira.

Figueira, Paulo (2019). O romance histórico na Madeira: o caso de A filha de Tristão das Damas, de João dos Reis Gomes. In Sérgio Guimarães de Sousa e Ana Ribeiro (orgs.). Romance histórico: cânone e periferias. Vila Nova de Famalicão: Húmus/Centro de Estudos Humanísticos da Universidade do Minho.

Marinho, Maria de Fátima (1999). O romance histórico em Portugal. Porto: Campo de Letras.

Rodrigues, Paulo (2012). O Anel do Imperador (1934), de João dos Reis Gomes, entre a História e a Ficção: Napoleão e a Madeira. In Maria Hermínia Amado Laurel (dir.). Carnets, Invasions & Évasions. La France et nous, nous et la France. Lisboa: APEF/FCT, 81-97.

Vieira, Alberto (2001). A Autonomia na História da Madeira – Questões e Equívocos. In Autonomia e História das Ilhas – Seminário Internacional. Funchal: CEHA/SRTC, 143-175.

Vieira, Alberto (2018). Arquipélagos e ilhas entre memória, desmemória e identidade. Funchal: Cadernos de Divulgação do CEHA.

[1] Alberto Vieira conceived the idea of building a pantheon of regional heroes in the sense of differentiating between regional and national history: “desenvolvem-se os estudos locais e regionais. A História local e regional ganha evidência e diferencia-se da nacional. Constrói-se o panteão de heróis regionais” (Vieira, 2018: 20).

Orlanda Amarílis

Posted on 24 de November, 2022 | By caparicio

Orlanda Amarílis Lopes Rodrigues Fernandes Ferreira was a Cape Verdean writer, born on the island of Santiago, on October 8, 1924. In Mindelo (island of São Vicente), she completed primary and secondary school, before moving to the Portuguese State of Goa, where he finished his studies for the Primary Teaching. In Lisbon, he graduated in Pedagogical Sciences at the Universidade de Lisboa. He died in the portuguese capital on February 1, 2014.

Literature and Linguistics were always a presence in her life, through her husband, the writer Manuel Ferreira (Leiria, 7-18-1917/Linda-a-Velha, 3-17-1992), a scholar of Lusophone African literature and cultures, author of No Reino de Caliban and A Aventura Crioula, through her father, Armando Napoleão Rodrigues Fernandes (Brava, 7-1-1889/Praia, 6-19-1969), who published the first Creole-Portuguese dictionary, O Dialecto Crioulo: Léxico do Dialecto Crioulo do Arquipélago de Cabo Verde, and through Baltazar Lopes da Silva (São Nicolau, 4-23-1907/Lisbon, 5-28-1989), author of Chiquinho and founder of the magazine Claridade.

Orlanda Amarílis, as a member of the Academia Cultivar, founded by students from the Liceu Gil Eanes, and a contributor to the magazine Certeza (1944), belonged to the Geração de Certeza, whose main aim is to discuss the isolation of the Cape Verde archipelago and the islands from each other, with the purpose of edifying Cape Verdean culture and identity: “os escritores da Geração de Certeza propõem fincar os pés na terra e assumem um compromisso com a ação e a mudança, a partir, sobretudo, de textos literários que privilegiem a reconstrução da identidade cabo-verdiana e o combate à opressão” (Deus, 2020: 75-76).

In relation to the Geração de Certeza and supposed problem with the claridosos, Orlanda Amarílis speaks of a work of continuity:

quando apareceu a Certeza, não foi para combater a Claridade como ouvi algures. Até já ouvi que Certeza não foi marco nenhum. No entanto, para nós [os membros da Academia Cultivar], Certeza viria trazer algo de novo. Havia um pulsar diferente dentro de nós, de uma geração posterior, portanto mais recente que os fundadores da Claridade. Fundar Certeza foi dar continuidade ao que a Claridade tinha iniciado. (Laban, 1992: 271-272)

Over time, Amarílis became one of the most important female faces in Cape Verdean literature, expressing, in her work, Cape Verdean women and the diaspora. Their stories reveal an important contribution to the registration and dissemination of Cape Verde’s intangible heritage.

Upon her return, after a long exile, she recalls her lost insularity, looking in that time of physical distance for the strength that made her write and publicize the life of the islands, even in the “tontice ingénua” (naive foolishness) of being able to relive that time:

eu fui colocada na posição de procura de um universo perdido e, se essa rotura existiu virtualmente, foi bom, porque me obrigou a escrever. No entanto, o meu clima emocional de então não tem razão de ser neste momento. É uma tontice ingénua pensarmos ser possível, ao fim de tantos anos de ausência, reviver as emoções de então. […]. Quando há alguns anos voltei a Cabo Verde, perante mim espalharam-se as cinzas do vulcão que foi a minha vida até aos dezasseis anos. (Laban, 1992: 263)

As the most outstanding work we consider Cais do Sodré té Salamansa (1974; 1991), whose title is a reference to Lisbon and the island of São Vicente, more precisely to the village located northeast of Mindelo. The set of seven short stories makes known the marks that we point out in Orlanda Amarílis’s stories, with relevance to the diaspora, the woman and the Cape Verdean feeling of abandonment and return to the islands, in a journey that started in “Cais do Sodré” and ended in “Salamansa”.

With characters that embody the islands, for their identity, for their language (expressions, forms of treatment, songs, everyday habits), for the difficulty and hardship of life, and for the subtlety dichotomous, physical and figurative, between the character that leaves the space of the archipelago and the one that remains, “estando em exílio, contrapõem a todo tempo a memória de sua identidade cabo-verdiana às modificações causadas pela distância espacial e temporal, e essa distância vai se inserindo nas suas filiações identitárias” (Silva, 2010: 63), Orlanda Amarílis offers a reflection on “questões importantes do cenário sociocultural cabo-verdiano como, por exemplo, a ressignificação da identidade cultural, a violência de gênero, a opressão sofrida pelas mulheres, a solidão, a emigração” (Deus, 2020: 80).

From Cais do Sodré to Salamansa, we highlight what we can consider a synthesis of the writing of Orlanda Amarílis. In the final part of the short story “Salamansa”, Antoninha “garganteia com sabura” (Amarílis, 1991: 82) a song in Creole, which is a motto to invoke the beach of Salamansa, communion with the sea and the emigrant Linda, a girl from “rua do Cavoquinho” (Amarílis, 1991: 80), who symbolizes the difficulties of the life of the women of the islands: “Oh, Salamansa, praia de ondas soltas e barulhentas como meninas intentadas em dia de S. João. Oh, Salamansa, de peixe frito nos pratos cobertos no fundo dos balaios e canecas de milho ilhado por titia em caldeiras com areia quente. Areia de Salamansa, Linda a rolar na areia” (Amarílis, 1991: 82).

Of the author’s works, we have to mention, in addition to Cais do Sodré té Salamansa, Ilhéu dos pássaros (1982), A casa dos Mastros (1989), Facécias e Peripécias (1990), A tartaruguinha (1997).

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Amarílis, Orlanda (1991). Cais do Sodré té Salamansa. Linda-a-Velha: ALAC.

Deus, Lílian Paula Serra e (2020). Orlanda Amarílis, Vera Duarte e Dina Salústio: a tessitura da escrita de autoria feminina na ficção cabo-verdiana. In Regina Dalcastagnè (Dir.). Veredas – Revista da Associação Internacional de Lusitanistas, nº 33. Coimbra: Associação Internacional de Lusitanistas. 74-87.

Figueira, Paulo (2014).Estudo Lexical sobre Cais do Sodré Té Salamansa, de Orlanda Amarílis. In Marcelino de Castro (Dir.). Islenha, nº 55. Funchal: DRAC. 63-74.

Laban, Michel (1992). Cabo Verde: encontro com escritores. Vol. I. Porto: Fundação Engenheiro António de Almeida.

Laranjeira, Pires (1987). Formação e desenvolvimento das literaturas africanas de língua portuguesa. In Literaturas africanas de língua portuguesa. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 15-24.

Mariano, Gabriel (1991). Cultura caboverdeana – ensaios. Lisboa: Vega.

Silva, Elisa Maria Taborda da (2010). Cais do Sodré té Salamansa: o cabo-verdiano em exílio. In Beatriz Junqueira Guimarães (Ed.). Cadernos CESPUC de Pesquisa, nº 19. Belo Horizonte: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais. 61-70.

Trigo, Salvato (1987). Literatura colonial/Literaturas africanas. In Literaturas africanas de língua portuguesa. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 139-158.

Cenáculo

Posted on 24 de November, 2022 | By caparicio

Cenáculo was a group of gatherings that met at the Golden Gate[1], founded by João dos Reis Gomes, Fr. Fernando Augusto da Silva and Alberto Artur Sarmento, which became relevant for the ideas presented, although, so far, no minutes or official documents of the gathering that allow us to objectively evaluate the intellectual debate. As for the constituent members, and aware of the lack of space for the acceptance of new elements, Joana Góis reports on 24 members (Góis, 2015: 24-25), among them the son of João dos Reis Gomes, Álvaro Reis Gomes.

Visconde do Porto da Cruz expresses that the group is not open to new generations: “Em volta do ‘Cenáculo’ apareciam curiosos que não se afoitavam a aproximar-se de centro tão restrito, onde, especialmente, Reis Gomes e o Padre Fernando da Silva, não viam com bons olhos o advento de novos valores” (Porto da Cruz, 1953: 12).

Joana Góis shares Visconde’s opinion and adds that the gathering was a mystery in terms of collective action, but expressed itself very well through the role of its individualities: “A ‘misteriosa’ geração reunia-se em silêncio e permaneceu, acima de tudo, na esfera privada e sem expressão pública dos seus trabalhos” (Góis, 2015: 21).

Cenáculo elements gravitate towards the edition of two periodicals directed by Major João dos Reis Gomes, Heraldo da Madeira and Diário da Madeira, respectively, whose orientations approach subjects related to autonomy, regionalism and history, literature, traditions and politics related to Madeira, all under the inspiration of a certain conservatism and patriotism, but with the focus on the construction and defense of a Madeiran identity.

We believe that the most outstanding action of Cenáculo, as a collective, is the formation of Mesa do Centenário, with the objective of carrying out the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Madeira. Always with the intention of a nationwide celebration, the action of the members of Mesa do Centenário led to the challenge of modernizing Funchal, in order to dignify the event’s stage.

Between Cenáculo and Mesa do Centenário there seems to have been a natural transition and, based on the positions conceived and publicized in the Diário da Madeira, the commemorative program of the Madeira Centenary was designed. The “Geração do Cenáculo” managed to add a cultural foundation to the event, which triggered an atmosphere of conflict with metropolis, which meant that, between December 1922 and January 1923, Lisbon was not represented, despite the several international commissions.

The fact turned out to be fruitless due to the lack of argumentative sustainability in relation to the Madeiran identity because, according to Nelson Veríssimo, “Faltaram intelectuais que exaltassem esses princípios que congregaram vontades e animaram a condução de populações por entusiásticos guias” (Veríssimo, 1985: 232). After the festivities, the “cenaculistas” were also participatory voices in the Comissão de Estudo para as Bases da Autonomia da Madeira.

Cenáculo’s line of thought approaches, from what we can assess from its members, through the newspapers and the action of Mesa do Centenario, a Madeiran identity close to patriotic values (Portuguese settlement, exaltation of the Portuguese element) and not so much cosmopolitanism also present in the Madeiran feeling[2].

The meetings and ideas of the “ninho da águia” (Eagle’s Nest) are the target of critics who were fascinated by the group: “[Reis Gomes] Vindo do labirinto da vista da cidade, depois de haver feito a sua longa jornada profissional diária – […] – encontrava no íntimo cavaco com amigos, reunidos numa das salas do hotel Golden Gate, o benéfico oásis para o seu descanso físico e intelectual” (Vieira, 1950: 18). In relation to literature, João dos Reis Gomes and the “Geração do Cenáculo” became forerunners of intellectuals who, in the 1940s, saw “na narrativa de ficção com forte cunho regionalista” the possibility “de constituir uma história, uma memória, uma biblioteca, uma identidade cultural forte para as gerações futuras da Ilha” (Santos, 2008: 569).

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Góis, Joana Catarina Silva (2015). A Geração do Cenáculo e as Tertúlias Intelectuais Madeirenses (da I República aos anos 1940) [Masters dissertation]. Porto: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto.

Gouveia, Horácio Bento de (1952). Reis Gomes – Homem de Letras. In Das Artes e Da História da Madeira, nº 13. Funchal, 29-31.

Gouveia, Horácio Bento de (1969). O académico e escritor João dos Reis Gomes. In Panorama, nº 29. Lisboa, 6-9.

Figueira, Paulo (2021). João dos Reis Gomes: contributo literário para a divulgação da História da Madeira [Phd thesis]. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira.

Pestana, César (1952). Academias e tertúlias literárias da Madeira – “O Cenáculo”. In Das Artes e da História da Madeira, vol. II, nº 38. Funchal, 21-23.

Porto da Cruz, Visconde (1953). Notas & Comentários Para a História Literária da Madeira, 3º Período: 1910-1952, vol. III. Funchal: Câmara Municipal do Funchal.

Salgueiro, Ana (2011). Os imaginários culturais na construção identitária madeirense (implicações cultura/economia/relações de poder). In Anuário do Centro Estudos e História do Atlântico, nº 3. Funchal: CEHA, 184-204.

Santos, Thierry Proença dos (2008). Gerações, antologias e outras afinidades literárias: a construção de uma identidade cultural na Madeira. In Dedalus, nº 11-12. Lisboa: APLC/Cosmos, 559-582.

Veríssimo, Nelson (1985). Em 1917 a Madeira reclama Autonomia. In António Loja (dir.). Atlântico, nº 3. Funchal: Eurolitho, 230-233.

Vieira, G. Brazão (1950). Um grande vulto que a morte levou: João dos Reis Gomes. In Das Artes e da História da Madeira, nº 2. Funchal, 17-19.

[1] The Golden Gate, known as one of the “esquinas do mundo”, in the words of Ferreira de Castro, and due to its geographical location, close to the Cathedral of Funchal, the port, the Palácio de São Lourenço and the Statue of Zarco, is a famous restaurant space that favors the passage of citizens from all over the world, mainly through its esplanade, something that is still verifiable today.

[2] Cf. Ana Salgueiro, “Os imaginários culturais na construção identitária madeirense (implicações cultura/economia/relações de poder)”, 184-204.

José Tolentino Mendonça

Posted on 4 de May, 2022 | By caparicio

The poet-island who combines insular childhood, insular vicissitudes, the maturity of a thought that questions human existence with this sacred place, the physical island in the middle of the Atlantic, presents himself in Os dias contados: “No princípio era a ilha/embora se diga/o Espírito de Deus/abraçava as águas” (Mendonça, 1990: 9).

Born in Machico, Madeira (December 15, 1965), with a period of childhood spent in Angola, José Tolentino Mendonça has come to stand out in literature and ecclesiastical life. Of his training, the studies in Biblical Sciences (Rome) and the doctorate in Theology at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, where he held the position of vice-rector and directed the Centro de Investigação em Teologia e Estudos de Religião, deserve to be highlighted.

His thinking has come to assert itself on the international scene, having been recognized by the Vatican as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Culture. In the exhibition “Lo splendore della verità, la bellezza della carità” (“The Splendor of Truth, the Beauty of Love”), commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the ordination of Benedict XVI, in 2011, Tolentino Mendonça presented the Bishop of Rome with the poem “O Mistério está todo na infância”.

In 2018, Pope Francis appointed the Madeiran priest to direct the Lenten spiritual retreat, organizing the reflection “O elogio da sede”, which would give rise to the homonymous work O elogio da sede. In that year, he was appointed Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church and ordained bishop.

On October 5, 2019, Pope Francis presided over the Consistory that appointed 10 new cardinals, in line with the Church’s missionary vocation. Among them, Tolentino Mendonça. Already a cardinal, in 2021, he was appointed by the Supreme Pontiff as a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which accompanies the life of Catholic communities in so-called mission countries.

José Tolentino Mendonça’s written production is divided into that of the essayist, linked to his vocation as a theologian and thinker on themes and texts of religious tradition – and not only – and that of the poet, in which his connection memory, childhood, the island and the interrogation of the being before the contemplated world, becomes unavoidable.

Within the profile of the essayist thinker, as a translator, proofreader and text commentator, José Tolentino Mendonça participates in the Bíblia Ilustrada project (Assírio & Alvim). The perspective of the thinker is very explicit in the introduction to the Portuguese translation of Cântico dos Cânticos, with illustrations by Ilda David’ (1997, 1st edition). In the introduction, José Tolentino Mendonça warns us about the full intellectual and ontic humility of his thought: “E, porque não se teme enunciar o sentido das palavras, é que nos podemos abrir à revelação escatológica do silêncio guardado entre elas. O silêncio de Deus” (Mendonça, 1999: 14).

As a poet, José Tolentino Mendonça is, according to critics, one of the most original voices in current Portuguese literature. Ana Margarida Falcão Seixas argues that Tolentino Mendonça gives the reader a mystical aura in which “o sujeito mantém um estatuto de elemento intermédio entre o divino e o mundo, mas quase sempre perspectivado através de uma voz que se eleva numa pergunta, numa procura” (Seixas, 2003: 418). His poetics is completed around ontic issues, the reason for which may “ter origem tanto na evocação de uma personagem ou episódio bíblico como no contar das recordações da pureza perdida da infância quase imaculada como, ainda, na interrogação acerca dos episódios da vida quotidiana” (Seixas, 2003: 418-9), to which is added the insular aspect, where his poetic feeling spreads. Provided by memory, the memory of the island’s places harbors, in the subtle memory of the island, the contemplation of a place that edifies intellectual and ontic humility: “A intertextualidade da sua poesia com os escritos sagrados não secundariza a presença da sensualidade mística e da reflexão sobre o quotidiano, muitas vezes subtilmente evocadoras da nostalgia da terra natal” (Falcão, 2011: 112).

The meeting between essayistic, poetic thought and the human pulse is materialized in the following stanza of “O mistério está todo na infância”: “O mistério está todo na infância [the physical and spiritual island, the Atlantic island, whose representation is the subject]:/é preciso que o homem siga/o que há de mais luminoso/à maneira da criança futura”[1].

From the bibliography, among essays and poetic titles, we highlight: Um Deus que dança, Rezar de olhos abertos, O que é amar um país, A construção de Jesus, A mística do instante, Histórias escolhidas da Bíblia, Os Dias Contados, Longe não sabia, Estrada branca, Estação central or A papoila e o monge.

José Tolentino Mendonça’s distinction is also evidenced by the national and international awards: Cidade de Lisboa de Poesia (1998), PEN Clube de Ensaio (2005), Res Magnae, for essay (2015), Grande Prémio de Poesia Teixeira de Pascoaes APE (2015), Grande Prémio APE de Crónica (2016) and the prestigious Capri-San Michele (2017).

[1] In “O mistério está todo na infância”: poema de José Tolentino Mendonça para Bento XVI. In Secretariado Nacional da Pastoral da Cultura. Digital access: https://www.snpcultura.org/o_misterio_esta_todo_na_infancia_poema_jose_tolentino_mendonca_bento_xvi.html.

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Falcão, Ana Margarida (2011). O Funchal na poesia insular do séc. XV ao séc. XX. In Funchal (d)escrito: ensaios sobre representações literárias da cidade. Vila Nova de Gaia: 7 Dias 6 Noites, 77-113.
Figueira, Paulo (2020). José Agostinho Baptista, “le sentiment de soi”. In TRANSLOCAL. Culturas Contemporâneas Locais e Urbanas, nº 5. Funchal: UMa-CIERL/CMF/IA. Digital access: https://translocal.cm-funchal.pt/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/JoseAgostinhoBaptista-le-sentiment-de-soit5.pdf. Consulted on 21-12-2021.
Figueira, Paulo (2008). Percursos da subjetividade pós-modernista: um contributo para a análise das poéticas de José Agostinho Baptista e Eduardo White [Masters dissertation]. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira.
Magalhães, Joaquim Manuel (1989). Um pouco da morte. Lisboa: Presença.
Mendonça, José Tolentino (2000). Um sopro, uma leve pancada no coração. In A Phala – José Agostinho Baptista, nº 81. Digital access: https://joseagostinhobaptista.com/a-phala.html. Consulted on 21-12-2021.
Seixas, Ana Margarida Falcão (2003). Os Novos Shâmanes. Um Contributo para o Estudo da Narratividade na Poesia Portuguesa mais recente [Phd thesis]. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira.

João dos Reis Gomes

Posted on 4 de May, 2022 | By caparicio

João dos Reis Gomes was a Madeiran military man who stood out, in the society of his time, as an author in areas such as journalism, theater, history, romance, philosophy, music and cinema. His intellectual training will draw from the transition period between the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, marked by the wave of events that took place on the Mainland and Madeira.

Born in Funchal, on January 5, 1869, where he died, on January 21, 1950, he became known as Major João dos Reis Gomes (as if the patent was associated with his own name) and recognized as a professor, writer and essayist, member of several academies, such as Academia de Ciências de Lisboa, and founder of the delegation of Sociedade Histórica da Independência de Portugal, in Funchal. He almost always opted for an action in the field of intellectuality and not so much in terms of political exposure. Directed two periodicals, Heraldo da Madeira e Diário da Madeira, who advocated a regionalist, autonomous and conservative vision, although imbued with a patriotic spirit.

Personality inserted in a generation that fights for a better autonomy for Madeira, at the beginning of the 20th century, the insular aspect, either by resorting to themes dear to Madeiran folklore or to History, Reis Gomes was one of those responsible for building an Madeiran identity.

His action, linked to a perspective of insularity based on autonomy and regionalism, lead him to debates on issues about Madeira with the creation of the “Cenáculo” gathering, participation in Comissão de Estudo para as Bases da Autonomia da Madeira and the celebration of the 500 years of Madeira, between December 1922 and January 1923.

As a multifaceted man in the field of writing, we are mainly interested in the playwright and novelist, although he has also published books of short stories. We believe it is mainly in A filha de Tristão das Damas, O anel do imperador, O cavaleiro de Santa Catarina and Guiomar Teixeira, that we can glimpse the connection of his writing to the island and the concern with the Madeiran identity.

One of the good examples of this insular connection that guided the literary writing of João dos Reis Gomes is the historical drama Guiomar Teixeira, adapted from the historical novel A filha de Tristão das Damas, and which brings together the attributes of an insular identification and an identity cry. This play is known for being believed to be the first, in the world, to merge, in its representation, the theatrical art with the cinematographic art, being attributed the merit to Major[1].

In the drama, as in the historical novel, the center of the action is the Madeiran aid, provided by the donee Simão da Câmara to the capture of Safim, during the reign of D. Manuel I. In a subtle allegory with the situation experienced in Madeira at the time of autonomy administration of 1901, Reis Gomes points to the example of the conquest of the Moroccan square as a way of exposing that better autonomy would result in a better region and, consequently, a better country.In order to understand the Madeiran identity intentions and protest against the political situation of the archipelago, the Quincentenário commission chose the play Guiomar Teixeira for representation, which seems to us a clear allusion to the dissemination of the insular territory. The main actors were Sofia de Figueiredo, in the role of Guiomar Teixeira, and João dos Reis Gomes, in the role of Cristóvão Colombo.

Due to his role, we can consider João dos Reis Gomes as one of the builders of Madeira’s cultural memory, in the sense that the author’s literary production “estabelece entre o ontem e o hoje, modelando e atualizando de forma contínua as experiências e as imagens de um passado no presente, como recordação geradora de um horizonte de esperanças e de continuidade” (Antunes, 2019: 204). Merged with the concept of cultural memory, we find the “madeirensidade”, in the sense that “A literatura, por exemplo, contribui para a construção da Madeirensidade, mas ao mesmo tempo é também o devir desta que promove a emergência, a afirmação e o desenvolvimento daquilo que podemos designar como literatura madeirense” (Rodrigues, 2015: 167).

At the end of the diary on the Madeiran pilgrimage of 1926, in the original Através da França, Suíça e Itália – Diário de Viagem, Major João dos Reis Gomes expressed the feeling of nostalgia in relation to Madeira, “Estou nostálgico […]. Por momentos, ante a visão da pequenina terra [Madeira Island], apaga-se-me da memória a lembrança dessa existência de tão grande e variada beleza que eu acabo, febrilmente, de viver” (Reis Gomes, 2020: 223), which seems to us a declaration of geographical and cultural belonging dear to many Madeirans.

From the work of João dos Reis Gomes we highlight: O Theatro e o Actor (1ª ed., 1905, 2ª ed., 1916), Histórias Simples (1907), A Filha de Tristão das Damas (1ª ed., 1909, 2ª ed., 1946, 3ª ed., 1962), Guiomar Teixeira (1ª ed., 1914)[2], A Música e o Teatro (1919), Forças Psíquicas (1925), O Belo Natural e Artístico (1928), Figuras de Teatro (1928), Através da França, Suíça e Itália – Diário de Viagem (1929), Três Capitais de Espanha: Burgos, Toledo, Sevilha (1931), O Anel do Imperador (1934), Natais (1935), O Vinho da Madeira (1937), Casas Madeirenses (1937), O Cavaleiro de Santa Catarina (1941), De Bom Humor… (1942), A Lenda de Loreley – Contada por um Latino (1948), Através da Alemanha – Notas de Viagem (1949) and Viagens (2020)[3].

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Antunes, Luísa Marinho (2019). A construção da memória cultural por meio da literatura: alguns aspectos. In Pro-Posições Culturais. São Paulo, 189-211.

Figueira, Paulo (2021). João dos Reis Gomes: contributo literário para a divulgação da História da Madeira [Phd thesis]. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira.

Gouveia, Horácio Bento de (1969). O académico e escritor João dos Reis Gomes. In Panorama, nº 29. Lisboa, 6-9.

Marino, Luís (s.d.). Panorama Literário do Arquipélago da Madeira [unpublished text]. Arquivo Regional da Madeira/Arquivo Luís Marino.

Reis Gomes, João dos (2020). Viagens (Ed. Literária Ana Isabel Moniz). Funchal: Imprensa Académica.

Rodrigues, Paulo (2015). Da Madeirensidade: Contributo para uma reflexão necessária. In Nelson Veríssimo e Thierry Proença dos Santos (orgs.). Universidade da Madeira: 25 anos. Funchal: Universidade da Madeira, 165-190.

[1] The drama was translated into Italian by Virgilio Biondi, La Figlia del Vice-Ré, and was performed by the Italian company Vitaliani-Duse, in 1914, at the Teatro Municipal do Funchal.

[2] Guiomar Teixeira, in addition to the Italian version, it had three editions.

[3] According to Luís Marino, in Panorama Literário do Arquipélago da Madeira, p. 67, we must add to this list No Laboratório, Psychologia e Pathologia Cerebral (1899), written by João dos Reis Gomes, under the pseudonym J. Règinard.

João de Melo

Posted on 4 de May, 2022 | By caparicio

Born in the parish of Achadinha, municipality of Nordeste, in São Miguel, Azores, on February 4, 1949, João Manuel de Melo Pacheco is a distinguished representative of the Azorean insularity.

At the age of 11, he settled on the Portuguese mainland, where he continued his studies at Seminário dos Domenicanos in Fátima. He was expelled for religious and political reasons. However, he settled in Lisbon, where he began to publish short stories in Diário Popular and Diário de Lisboa. During this time he also collaborated with the group “Geraçã Glacial”, namesake of the literary supplement, Glacial – União das Letras e das Artes, of the newspaper A União, based in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira.

The Guerra Colonial (Colonial War) was one of the remarkable stages of his biography, having provided military service (furriel and nurse) in Angola. In addition to his childhood, the Guerra do Ultramar (Overseas War) marks João de Melo’s narrative, with emphasis on, for example, Autópsia de um mar de ruínas (1984).

After the 25th of April, João de Melo graduated in Romance Philology at Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, a period he considers decisive in his training as a writer: “Após ter frequentado a Faculdade de Letras, aconteceu uma revolução literária na minha cabeça, no meu espírito. Mudei de linguagem. É nessa fase que me encontro: tento harmonizar o máximo pendor narrativo com a expressão poética da narrativa” (Besse, 2019: 155).

According to the insular aspect of some texts by João de Melo, we cannot neglect “Açorianidade”. Onésimo Teotónio Almeida refers to this concept, “insistindo em que a açorianidade é a açorianidade de cada um. Embora existam elementos comuns à maioria dos açorianos […] em diferentes graus de intensidade” (Almeida, 2007: 26). The different feeling of the islands does not prevent the “Açorianidade” from allying itself with an islander feeling that assumes a set of elements that crystallize the Azorean feeling.

If we are based on the examples of A Divina Miséria and Gente Feliz com Lágrimas, there is an exploration of a particular feeling in relation to Terceira and São Miguel, respectively, but which combine in a superior concept involving the archipelago: “Eu vi a minha ilha despovoar-se de gente que todos os dias partia para a América. […]. Essa é a história da minha própria família” (Besse, 2019: 155).

João de Melo points out in his writing the distinction between the insular aspect and the regionalist aspect, considering that his narratives should not be considered regionalist in the narrow sense of the concept, despite the Azores being the center of the human universality present in his work: “De modo que a minha escrita não pode ser considerada expressivamente ‘regionalista’. […]. Fiz dos Açores o meu lugar de todo o mundo: esse mundo real e simbólico a que ouso chamar universalidade da condição humana” (Besse, 2019: 154). We can therefore consider that João de Melo’s writing “é sobretudo um registo ficcional não só de uma geração, mas a de todos que durante um século viveram a sua tragédia e tentaram recuperar o que lhes restava da sua humanidade face a forças […] deste e do outro mundo” (Freitas, 1998: 119), according to “uma errância e reencontros, de mitologias e de símbolos bíblicos e históricos” (Freitas, 1998: 119).

João de Melo is the author of several reference novels. Perhaps Gente Feliz com Lágrimas is the best known, being adapted for theater and television. We think that this novel shows the main provocations of the author’s work as a whole, insularity, childhood, emigration, memory, in addition to war, because “Uma ferida ou uma simples dor no olhar, eis o que bem pode definir tudo o que resta de um homem, do seu mundo perdido e de um tempo presente que ainda falta inventar. Só por isso, já lhe tinha valido a pena vir àquela casa dos Açores” (Melo, 1988: 479).

We believe that the opinion of Vamberto Freitas applies to João de Melo, as the author who transports us through the different stages of human pilgrimages, in which we see ourselves, as readers, from the individual and collective point of view: “só através da errância dos seus narradores poderia vir até nós esta incomparável visão globalizante das tribulações do homem moderno” (Freitas, 1998: 121). A wandering defined by João de Melo in the awareness of the island/sea formula: “foi na minha infância, perante o mar dos Açores, que sempre fez algum sentido a oposição ilha/Mundo. Mas nela teve lugar uma definitiva evidência: as ilhas são pequenos continentes; os continentes não são mais do que ilhas muito grandes” (Melo, 2001: 119).

From his bibliography we highlight: A divina miséria, Gente feliz com lágrimas, Autópsia de um mar em ruínas, O meu mundo não é deste reino, O mar de Madrid, As coisas da alma, Os anos da guerra, Dicionário das paixões, Bem-aventuranças.

Recognition of his work took the form of prizes such as: Grande Prémio da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores, Prémio Eça de Queiroz/Cidade de Lisboa, Prémio Cristóvão Colombo (Capitais ibero-americanas), Prémio Fernando Namora/Casino do Estoril, Prémio Antena 1, Prémio “A Balada” and Prémio Dinis da Luz. In 2021, he won the Tavares Rodrigues Urban Literary Prize, with Livro das vozes e das sombras. The Portuguese Government also recognized João de Melo’s intellectual relevance by inviting him to be cultural attaché at the embassy in Madrid and with the Medalha de Mérito Cultural.

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Almeida, Onésimo Teotónio (2007). Sobre o peso da geografia no imaginário literário açoriano. In Jane Tutikian e Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil (Orgs.). Mar Horizonte: Literaturas Insulares Lusófonas. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, 23-32.

Besse, Maria Graciete (2019). João de Melo: entre a memória e a perda. Lajes do Pico: Companhia das ilhas.

Freitas, Vamberto (1998). Mar cavado: da literatura açoriana e de outras narrativas. Lisboa: Edições Salamandra.

Melo, João de (1988). Gente feliz com lágrimas. Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores.

Melo, João de (2001). O mare nostrum ou o mar em nós. In Alberto Vieira (org.). Livro de comunicações do colóquio “Caminhos do mar”. Funchal: Câmara Municipal do Funchal, 118-120. Sousa, Luís Francisco. Açorianidade: conversa com Cláudia Cardoso e Luiz Fagundes Duarte. Digital access: https://www.bruapodcasts.com/sapiens/2019/8/31/sapiens-aorianidade-com-cludia-cardoso-e-luiz-fagundes-duarte. Consulted on 10-12-2021.

Germano Almeida

Posted on 4 de May, 2022 | By caparicio

Germano Almeida was born in 1945, on the island of Boavista, in Cape Verde. With a scholarship from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, he graduated in Law at Universidade de Lisboa. Returning to Cape Verde, he practices law in the city of Mindelo, on the island of São Vicente, where he settled in 1979.

He was one of the founders of Ponto & Vírgula, which intended to give writers from the Cape Verde islands an opportunity to publish. The magazine, without an editorial line committed to politics and ideologies, “nós [Germano Almeida, Leão Lopes and Rui Figueiredo] sempre dissemos que a revista é para os amigos, inimigos, criticadores, os críticos e todo o mundo que queira escrever para ela” (Laban, 1992: 625), augured to bring to light the writings of the Cape Verdean intellectuals, which, in the words of Germano Almeida, proved to be fruitless: “[the magazine] poderá, daqui a uns tempos, afirmar que serviu para desmistificar, de certo modo, aquilo que quase toda a gente pensa: em Cabo Verde, produz-se muito e não há meios de publicação” (Laban, 1992: 621).

This magazine reveals one of the ideas that have accompanied the thinking of Germano Almeida, taking Cape Verdean literature to a level of maturity that moves away from description and focuses on reflection: “uma literatura que nos levasse à análise do homem cabo-verdiano – da própria posição do homem cabo-verdiano na sociedade, para mim, sobretudo depois da Independência, até agora não houve nada acerca disso” (Laban, 1992: 631).

The reflexive stage of Cape Verdean literature would be the main point of affirmation of Cape Verde as an island nation, the Cape Verdean islander that is geographically close to Africa but reveals greater complicity with the European social, political and cultural panorama: “eu [Germano Almeida] penso que é necessário continuar a ter coragem de nos afirmarmos como cabo-verdianos ligados, politicamente, digamos, a uma raiz africana, também a uma raiz europeia, que deu essas duas culturas ligadas, dando a impressão que era uma coisa nova” (Laban, 1992: 676).

The point of view defended by Germano Almeida becomes central in the author’s following statement: “Nós [Cape Verdeans and Portuguese] temos muitos pontos comuns, obviamente, sobretudo Cabo Verde, que é um país feito pelos portugueses. Mas as ilhas – não só a sua orografia, mas sobretudo a ausência de meios de vida, a falta de chuva, sobretudo – fizeram de nós pessoas diferentes”[1]. Regarding Lusophony, for the Cape Verdean islander, the Portuguese language appears as an instrument of graphic expression. Germano Almeida considers himself a Lusographer and not a Lusophone: “não gosto muito da expressão lusofonia. Somos escritores de diversos países que usam a língua portuguesa como língua de contacto, como língua de expressão, mas não é uma cultura lusófona”[2].

The literary generation of Germano Almeida is concerned with the reflection of themes that go beyond the simple personal description of the differences existing in the islands (drought, emigration, and the post-independence political situation), in the sense of thinking about the condition of the Cape Verdean man and his condition as an islander. Thus, Germano Almeida reflects the cult of islands and the value of insularity in the people of the Cape Verdean archipelago, assuming this condition of ontic questioning and discovery of a mature path for Cape Verdean literature.

The book for which he became known is O testamento do sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo, which was adapted to the cinema. Napumoceno’s life is a set of adventures that focus on Cape Verdean identity and subtly on the reflection of its island matrix. Amid humor and irony, Germano Almeida seeks in Napumoceno to reflect on the life of a poor man from S. Nicolau who becomes a respected merchant from Mindelo, but who asks the reader about the life of the islands, independence and non-union with Guinea-Bissau, “Proclamavam ser necessário criar-se uma força capaz de se opor àqueles que vinham da Guiné” (Almeida, 1997: 44), poverty, the diaspora, “Não deixo porém de pensar ser uma pena que a distante América teime em roubar-nos excelentes esposas e futuras mães” (Almeida, 1997: 63), his connections to Portugal and Europe, and his condition as an islander, “A verdade, porém, é que preferia fechar-se em casa a redigir o testamento da sua vida porque já não se reconhecia naquela intolerância tão contrária ao modo de ser do ilhéu” (Almeida, 1997: 45). When Napumoceno died, “pensei que ele estivesse ainda a dormir e só quando abri a janela é que vi que ele dormia o sono dos anjos” (Almeida, 1997: 167), he left a will that, on the “150.ª página” (Almeida, 1997: 7), is now read by Américo Fonseca, as it seemed that the deceased “escrevera antes um livro de memórias” (Almeida, 1997: 7).

The author has published the following titles: O testamento do sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo (1989), O dia das calças roladas (1992), O meu poeta (1990), A Ilha Fantástica (1994), Os dois irmãos (1995), Estórias de dentro de casa (1996), A morte do meu poeta (1998), A família Trago (1998), Estórias contadas (1998), Dona Pura e os camaradas de Abril (1999), As memórias de um espírito (2001), Cabo Verde – Viagem pela história das ilhas (2003), O mar na Lajinha (2004), Eva (2006), A morte do ouvidor (2010), De Monte Cara vê-se o mundo (2014), O Fiel Defunto (2018), O último mugido (2020) and A confissão e a culpa (2021).

In 2018, Germano Almeida received the most distinguished literary award for Portuguese-speaking authors, the Prémio Camões.

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Almeida, Germano (1997). O testamento do sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo. Lisboa: Caminho.

“Escritor cabo-verdiano Germano Almeida não gosta da expressão ‘lusofonia’”. Digital Access: https://observador.pt/2021/10/27/escritor-cabo-verdiano-germano-almeida-nao-gosta-da-expressao-lusofonia/. Consulted on 03-01-2022.

Gândara, Paula (2008). Construindo Germano Almeida: a consciência da desconstrução. Lisboa: Vega.

Laban, Michel (1992). Cabo Verde: encontro com escritores. Vol. II. Porto: Fundação Engenheiro António de Almeida.

Mariano, Gabriel (1991). Cultura caboverdeana – ensaios. Lisboa: Vega.

[1] In “Escritor cabo-verdiano Germano Almeida não gosta da expressão ‘lusofonia’”. Digital access: https://observador.pt/2021/10/27/escritor-cabo-verdiano-germano-almeida-nao-gosta-da-expressao-lusofonia/.

[2] In “Escritor cabo-verdiano Germano Almeida não gosta da expressão ‘lusofonia’”. Digital access: https://observador.pt/2021/10/27/escritor-cabo-verdiano-germano-almeida-nao-gosta-da-expressao-lusofonia/.

Henrique Teixeira de Sousa

Posted on 4 de May, 2022 | By caparicio

Henrique Teixeira de Sousa was born in Cape Verde, Island of Fogo, in the parish of São Lourenço, on September 6, 1919. He died, aged 87, in Algés, on March 3, 2006, after being hit by a car. He lived in Oeiras, Portugal, since the seventies of the 20th century.

He completed his medical course at Universidade de Lisbos, in 1945. In addition to writing, medicine deserved great dedication on the part of Teixeira de Sousa, attending courses in Tropical Medicine and Nutrition, having even served in East-Timor and Cape Verde (Fogo and São Vicente), before returning to Portugal.

As a result of his inter-island experience and around the world, Henrique Teixeira de Sousa became a symbol of the Cape Verdean feeling and the exposure of the feeling of the islands, which, according to Ondina Ferreira, catalogs him as “arquipelágico” because “Os seus textos ensaísticos [and not only] saem desse âmbito mais restrito e pertencem igualmente a todas as ilhas de Cabo Verde”[1].

From Cape Verde, and from the author’s early formative years, his longevity allowed him to participate in cultural movements that came to underline the Cape Verdean identity. From claridosos, associated with the magazine Claridade (1936), to the generation of Certeza, identified with the magazine Certeza (1944), Henrique Teixeira de Sousa remained close to the literary evolution of Cape Verde in an attitude that edified Cape Verdean culture and identity.

Coming from a time when the focus was the struggle for the liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, under the banner of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde), some of his reference works reflect that period of uncertain for the future of the archipelago which, thanks to its population, diaspora and respective history, was not exactly a brother of Guinea-Bissau and found itself in an intermediate position between Africa and Europe: “Em Caboverde julgo poder afirmar que o processo de aculturativo desabrochou no florescimento de expressões novas de cultura, mestiças […]; que no arquipélago puderam o negro e o mulato apropriar-se de elementos da civilização europeia e senti-los como próprios” (Mariano, 1991: 47).

Both the historical-political vision and the more attentive sensitivity towards Cape Verdean social problems (hunger, emigration) made Henrique Teixeira de Sousa “um profundo e fino analista social” [2]. The reformulation of these themes made Cape Verdean literature assert itself because it was necessary “ultrapassar a fase folclórica ou regionalista para não continuarmos espartilhados dentro dum círculo restrito de temas mais que esgotados” (Laban, 1992: 207).

It is difficult to discern about his masterpiece. Among the short stories and novels, we highlight two, in particular, Contra mar e vento, his first book of short stories, and Entre Duas Bandeiras, a historical novel, because we believe that they represent Cape Verde as a geographical, political and cultural entity.

In Entre Duas Bandeiras, as it is close to “la memoria politica” (Turano, 1997: 1555), the debate launched on the insular identity of Cape Verde is evident, which does not welcome or identify itself with the Guinean union. The author points out elements of a civilizational nature that justify the discussion regarding the independence of the archipelago: “Con questo volume lo scrittore apre il dibattito su una questione delicata, quella del passaggio dei poteri dal vecchio regime coloniale al nuovo stato indipendente. Con la presa del potere del P.A.I.C.G. riemergono, attraverso la ‘finzione’ romanzesca, questione politiche che, forse, sarebbe interessante dibattere” (Turano, 1997: 155). As readers, we conclude a greater affinity with the idea of an independence of Cape Verde outside the sphere of Guinea-Bissau, which results in an island country with its own identity between two continents that build its feeling. This point of view is openly assumed by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa himself: “Ora, eu não via que essa unidade [Cape Verde/Guinea-Bissau] fizesse o mínimo sentido dada a disparidade dos valores culturais entre os dois países. Combati-a veementemente. E a História veio-me dar razão” (Laban, 1992: 202).

Of the works by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa, it is worth mentioning Contra mar e vento (1972), Ilhéu de contenda (1978), Capitão de Mar e Terra (1984), Xaguate (1987), Djunga (1990), Na Ribeira de Deus (1992), Entre duas Bandeiras (1994), Oh Mar das Túrbidas Vagas (2005). Ilhéu de contenda, Xaguate e Na Ribeira de Deus constitute a trilogy.

Paulo César Vieira Figueira

References

Chabal, Patrick et al. (1996). The postcolonial literature of lusophone Africa. Londres: Hurst & Company.

“Entrevista a Ondina Ferreira – H. Teixeira de Sousa é uma referência incontornável da nossa história cultural”. Digital access: https://terranova.cv/index.php/entrevista/6895-h-teixeira-de-sousa-e-uma-referencia-incontornavel-da-nossa-historia-cultural-ondina-ferreira. Consulted on 13-12-2021.

Figueira, Paulo (2012). Entre Duas Bandeiras, de Henrique Teixeira de Sousa: traços para a identidade cabo-verdiana. In Navegações, 194-202.

Laban, Michel (1992). Cabo Verde: encontro com escritores. Vol. I. Porto: Fundação Engenheiro António de Almeida.

Mariano, Gabriel (1991). Cultura caboverdeana – ensaios. Lisboa: Vega.

Trigo, Salvato (1987). Literatura colonial/Literaturas africanas. In Literaturas africanas de língua portuguesa. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 139-158.

Turano, Maria Rosaria (1997). Diaspora Capoverdiana a Lisbona: Memoria Letteraria e Memoria Rituale – Appunti da una Ricerca. In Africana Miscellanea di Studi Extraeuropei. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 149-159.

[1] In “Entrevista a Ondina Ferreira – H. Teixeira de Sousa é uma referência incontornável da nossa história cultural”. Digital Access: https://terranova.cv/index.php/entrevista/6895-h-teixeira-de-sousa-e-uma-referencia-incontornavel-da-nossa-historia-cultural-ondina-ferreira.

[2] In “Entrevista a Ondina Ferreira – H. Teixeira de Sousa é uma referência incontornável da nossa história cultural”. Digital access: https://terranova.cv/index.php/entrevista/6895-h-teixeira-de-sousa-e-uma-referencia-incontornavel-da-nossa-historia-cultural-ondina-ferreira.

ISSN 2975-9331

Category: Paulo César Vieira Figueira-en

[1] In “Escritor cabo-verdiano Germano Almeida não gosta da expressão ‘lusofonia’”. Digital access: https://observador.pt/2021/10/27/escritor-cabo-verdiano-germano-almeida-nao-gosta-da-expressao-lusofonia/.