Seminar
Transculturation and linguistic representativeness in Ungulani BaKa Khosa: a “comparatism of solidarity”

Nataniel Ngomane (Eduardo Mondlane University)

May 26th, 2009, 15:00, CES Seminar Room

Within the activities of the Studies on Democracy, Multicultural Citizenship and Participation

 
Presentation

Driven by the necessity of focusing studies by parallels, Benjamin Abdala Jr. proposes the concept of “comparatism of solidarity”. It is through the study by parallels, according to the same author, that sociocultural symmetries gain fundamental importance by acting as means to pursue what exists of very own and common in our cultures. Nonetheless, only a more broader knowledge of these cultures of ours, be it under the form of symbolic representations as are literary works, be it through the contact with the everyday of popular cultures, may render more viable the development of studies of the nature proposed by the Brazilian critic.

Under the vigour of this assumption, the present seminar seeks to present a relatively unknown Mozambiquan author, but whose work, considering the peculiar fashion with which it appropriates, under a linguistic point of view, its sociocultural spaces, resorting to the most diverse techniques of capturing the dynamics of the indigenous cultural universe and its imaginaries, puts itself side by side with other authors that, using similar resources, have contributed to the demarcation of the literary fields from the so called peripheral literatures and consequent construction and affirmation of the respective identities. I hope, in this sense, to contribute, in some way, towards the development of the horizon of studies by parallels.

 
Biographic note

Nataniel José Ngomane holds a degree in Linguistics at the School of Arts and Humanities, Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, and a Doctoral Degree at the School of Philosophy, Humanities and Human Sciences, University of São Paulo, Brazil, were he defended his dissertation intituled A escrita de Mia Couto e Ungulani ba ka Khosa e a Estética do Realismo Maravilhoso (2004)

Presently Ngomane is Professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UEM, where he teaches General and Compared Literature, Rhetoric and Poetics, Introduction to Literary Studies (grad.) and Literatures in Portuguese Language. He is also Coordinator of the Area of Literature at UEM, Technical Advisor for the President of the Bibliographic Fund of Portuguese Language – FBLP and Representative of that institution regarding the Project José Craveirinha, turned to the Complete Edition and Critical Edition of that Mozambiquan poet and prosiest

His academic path includes several participations in national and international scientific events – papers, lecture orientations, seminars and several free courses. Among his published works we call attention to:

“Niketche: uma história de poligamia”, Metamorfoses n.4, 2003, p.314-316.

- “Palavras silenciadas, vozes emergentes: o resgate da História em Ualalapi, de Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa”. in Jorge, Sílvio Renato e Alves, Ida Maria Ferreira (Org.). A Palavra silenciada. Estudos de Literatura Portuguesa e Africana. Rio de Janeiro: Vício de Leitura/ Núcleo de Estudos de Literatura Portuguesa e Africana, 2001, p. 179-188.

- “Mia Couto e Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa: fundamentos para um estudo comparado”, Centro de Estudos Portugueses n. 2 (Dossiê: IV Encontro de ECLLP), São Paulo, 1999, p.75-82.

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