Paper short abstract:

50 years after the conquest of political independence, what kind of critical gesture does the literatures from African Countries in Portuguese demand? This paper aims to question the epistemological unit of these literatures, in their aspects no longer framed in the context of independence wars.

Paper long abstract:

The so-called Portuguese-speaking African literatures – from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe – were mainly interpreted from the perspective of social issues that emerged in the context of the political independence achieved, such as the constitution of the literature produced in these countries and its relationship with the formation of their national identities. However, about fifty years after the end of independence wars, what kind of critical gesture does such literatures demand? This proposal aims to reflect on the present state of the so-called African literatures in Portuguese, no longer framed by the social contexts of liberation fights. In this sense, it will be necessary to problematize the literatures of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe as epistemological units now and in the future, considering, for example, that African literatures in Portuguese are not at all independent from the literary institutions of the former imperial center and, therefore, the difficulty of predicting their future autonomy. In articulation with the reflections about the combined and uneven development in literature by the Warwick Research Collective, this work wishes to address possible theoretical adjustments which African literatures in Portuguese may suggest, if and when read under a critical positioning attentive to the autonomy of each work and each geographical context.