Abstract

Since the 1960's most of the African narrative fiction developed an archetypal protagonist as an anti-hero, with leeway for analogies. With this in mind I will analyse A walk in the night (1962) by Alex La Guma, A grain of Wheat (1967) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Nhinguitimo e Dina (1964) by Luis Bernardo Honwana. In the two first cases we can associate the protagonists’ behaviour to characters of the Dostoevskian universe, driven by inner conflicts. However, unlike them, they act in a social scenario that justifies the actions they carry out. The trend towards external focusing establishes the ambiguity of the narratives, whose outcomes are left without trial. Hence we may speak here of hybridity in the sense that none of these narratives is absolutely affiliated or in need of these trends, but moves in a kind of in-betweenness, from which emerges the anti-hero. In Honwana’s narratives the technical narrative processes are close to the avant-garde aesthetic options of nouveau-roman and some US narratives. Through the distancing they create regarding those other literary gestures, these works present themselves as effectively different legitimated by their reception which niches them in their very own  literary field (Kenyan, South African, Mozambican literature), resulting in the crystallization of a model that, perceived initially as hybrid, has grown over other African writers, thus contributing to a generic identification.

Bio note

Fátima Mendonça is Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University Eduardo Mondlane, since 1977, having retired in 2004. Mendonça has taught numerous courses, including Mozambican Literature, Comparative Literature, Comparative African Literatures, and Literatures of Southern Africa. External Assessor and Visiting Professor in several African, Brazilian and European universities. Her research lies in the field of Literary History of Mozambique, with several published works. Member of the Mozambican Writers Association, she was part of the governing bodies as vice president of the General Assembly and Chairman of the Supervisory Board from 1992 to 1996. Since 2007 she is researcher at CLEPUL [University Lisbon Centre for Lusophone and European Culture and Literatures]

Among her published works are (in co-authorship with César Braga-Pinto) João Albasini e as luzes da Nwandzengele, Lisboa:CLEPUL (no prelo); Literatura moçambicana - as dobras da escrita. Maputo:Ndjira, 2011; Rui de Noronha: Meus versos [edição crítica da poesia de Rui de Noronha, Maputo: Texto Editores 2006; Literatura moçambicana - a história e as escritas. Maputo: Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Faculdade de Letras, 1989; Antologia da nova poesia moçambicana: 1975 - 1988 [in co-authorship with Nelson Saúte]. Maputo: AEMO, 1993. Author of several essays including: «Hibridismo ou estratégias narrativas? Modelos de heroi na ficção narrativa de Ngugi wa T´hiongo,Alx la Guma e João Paulo Borges Coelho». In Hybridations problématiques dans les littératures de l´Ócean Indien. ´Barcelona Éditions K´A, 2010 ; «Mia Couto - le mal-aimé»- Études Littéraires Africaines - Autour de Mia Couto. Metz: APELA/Université Paul Verlaine, 2008; «Literaturas emergentes identidades e cânone». In Maria Paula Meneses e Margarida Calafate Ribeiro. Moçambique - das palavras escritas. Porto:Afrontamento, 2008; «Setentrião de João Paulo Borges Coelho». Review of Books. Dakar: Codesria, 2006.