Colonial Legacies in Times of 'Black Lives Matter'

CES Studies

«Deixei o meu coração em África». Memórias Coloniais no Feminino

Catarina Martins

Oficina do CES, n.º 375

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At a time when there is a dispute in the Portuguese public space over national memory and identity, based on the discussion of the colonial past, it is essential to note processes of counter-hegemonic memorialization, which arise in the literary universe, whether in the form of memories and testimonies or through recourse to fiction. This article analyses four narratives of Portuguese women, from the 1980s to the present time, which present a deeply critical memory of Portuguese colonialism in Africa, claiming a narrative voice in the construction of History, contesting not only certain ideological assumptions but also the androcentric rationality of the dominant narratives and aesthetics. In this process of emancipation of Portuguese women, concomitant with the liberation from colonial oppression, the production of other relations of oppression is revealed, nonetheless, which today is urgent to confront literary productions from other places of enunciation.