The narrative production of identity in “Cadernos de Memórias Coloniais”, by Isabela Figueiredo

Abstract

The book Caderno de Memórias Coloniais, by Isabela Figueiredo, is composed of a memoirist writing and addresses the trajectory of the identity of the narrator-character throughout her life, first during the Portuguese colonization in Mozambique and then during her return to Portugal, after the Revolution of April 25, 1974. This production of subjectivity comes from the relationship with the family, the group, the nation and the other, but also according to her desires and cravings, with her experiences in relation to physical and human space and the socio-historical contingencies experienced during her journey. The purpose of this essay is to relate memory and the discursive construction of identity from the novel Caderno de Memórias Coloniais, by Isabela Figueiredo. The essay intends to highlight the narrative component of the different degrees of family, group and national identification involved in the production of an individual subjectivity, explaining the generational rupture with the salazarist ideals that characterize Portuguese identity in contemporary times. In this sense, in addition to considering the dynamics of identifications and misidentifications that result in the characterization of the production of individual identity as a dynamic and ever changing process, the article intends to situate the novel within the contemporary tendencies of Portuguese literature and to make considerations about the current configurations of a national identity, whose settlement with the colonial past is still necessary.