CULTURAL RELATIONS AND THE QUEST FOR IDENTITY IN MIA COUTO’S A VARANDA DO FRANGIPANI

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The relation between literature and the historical context in which it was produced leads diverse analysis, each with a different point of view. This relation is more severely revealed for research in former colonies that have only recently gained independence. An example of this phenomenon is Mozambique, which, after independence and a bloody civil war, is undergoing a quest for identity shaped by the complexity that cultural encounter can bring about. In this view, the study of the paths and forms taken by literature in Mozambique allow us in a certain way to understand how some writers work out the constitution of national identity in their works.  We shall treat in this work some issues from the Mozambican author Mia Couto’s book A varanda do frangipani. In this work, phenomena like Western cultural influence versus Mozambican traditions and old versus modern are presented and turned into metaphor all the time through a magical narrative in constant dialogue with natural elements. We draw on post-colonial theory for the discussion. According to Ashcroft (1991 apud Bonnici, 2005, p. 232), we can count as post-colonial literature every production inserted in a specific cultural context that is somehow affected by the imperial process since the first instants of European colonization until the present.

Keywords: Literature, Post-colonialism, Mozambique, Identity.