Too human, mundane and situated: universal, in portuguese language

Abstract

This article deals with three Portuguese-speaking authors, seeking to place them based on certain issues, typical of postcolonial theories, and in tune with a provocation launched by Saramago, in a 1986 novel. I start by considering this provocation, in A Jangada de Pedra, about the integration of Portugal into Europe, into the West. From there I make some notes on the integrating function assumed in the canonical name of Guimarães Rosa, which arises at a decisive moment in the modernization of the country, articulating conflicting things such as the regional and the universal. I study possible similarities between the canonical model of Rosa and that of Mia Couto, who, having acted in the independence process of his country, was active in this modernizing transition. It seems to me that postcolonial theories, as well as Saramago's critical metaphor, help to think certain outlines of these two universal models, belonging to the literature of the former colonies of Portugal. To outline these models, I will make some observations about the publishing project for Antes das primeiras estórias [2011], a posthumous anthology of short stories by the young Guimarães Rosa, with a prologue by Mia Couto. I will consider possible transfers from Rosa's model to Mia Couto's.