A mosaic encrusted between two myths: the paradoxical narrative of Partes de África

Abstract

According to the sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Portugal did not base its process of identity construction in just one founding myth, but in two. The first myth refers to overseas expansion, which ceased to prevail with the crisis of the colonial system and the loss of the colonies. The emergent myth is the acceptance of Europe, which became the founder in the search for a new identity. Thus, the deconstruction of beliefs and concepts of the past assumed an important role in this process and became a common theme in contemporary Portuguese literature. Therefore, this work intends to analyze the representation of decadence of first myth and the emergence of second myth in narrative resources of Partes de África (the first Portuguese post-colonial novel, by Helder Macedo in 1991).