A look at the Francophilia in Presença: echoes of an unrequited love

Abstract

The fascination that French culture and litera­ture have always exerted upon the Portuguese imaginary has been widely demonstrated. The writers who have gathered in 1927 around the literary review presença (1927-1940) bear witness to this Francophile seduction which they clearly admitted. In fact, browsing through the pages of the Coimbra review we find recurrent references to both French language and culture. It should however be pointed out that the type of Francophilia found in presença presents singular and, to a certain extent, selective features, since, among the wide literary and cultural French repertoire, the presença generation chose as aesthetic and literary paradigm the Nouvelle Revue Française, published under the critical and doctrinal aegis of André Gide. However, the fascination and admiration that Régio’s group devoted for the bande à Gide was far from reciprocal, and the dialogue between the two literary reviews/generations has remained one-sided, even if the presencistas made several attempts to foster a partnership with the intellectuals from the Nouvelle Revue Française.