Author: Castro, Paul Melo E

Source: Portuguese Studies, Volume 25, Number 1, 15 March 2009 , pp. 46-64(19)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

Abstract:

Vimala Devi's Monção is a short-story collection set in Goa and published in 1964. It is thus roughly contemporaneous with other comparable Portuguese-language collection such as Nós Matámos o Cão-Tinhoso and Luuanda and is similarly an attempt accurately to portray the society in question in literary form, for almost the first time in Portuguese. Monção differs radically from Honwana and Vieira's work, however, in that there is little criticism of Portuguese colonialism, perhaps because of the particular status of the Portuguese-speaking intellectual in Goa and perhaps because Portuguese control had ended three years previous to publication. Following Julio Cortázar's assertion that the short story functions in the same way as a photograph, this article interprets Devi's short fictions as snapshots of colonial Goa, in which the hopes of the past and the social problems of the present are crystallized, criticized and their image preserved for future generations.

Portuguese
Publicado em 1964, Monção de Vimala Devi é uma colectânea de contos cujas narrativas se ambientam em Goa. À semelhança de obras contemporâneas e comparáveis como Nós Matámos o Cão-Tinhoso e Luuanda, Monção é uma tentativa de criar uma fiel representação literária da sociedade em questão, coisa que poucas vezes havia sido ambicionada. Monção difere radicalmente das obras de Honwana e Vieira na medida em que contém pouco que se possa considerar como crítica ao colonialismo luso, talvez devido à posição do intelectual goês lusófono e talvez porque o domínio português já havia terminado três anos antes de Monção ter sido escrito. À luz da teoria de Julio Cortázar, que sustenta que o conto e a fotografia funcionam de maneiras parecidas, este artigo analisa as curtas narrativas de Devi como `instantâneos' da Goa colonial, onde as esperanças do passado e os problemas sociais do presente se encontram cristalizados e criticados, e, deste modo, preservados imagisticamente para gerações vindouras.

Keywords: Vimala Devi; Indo-Portuguese literature; short story; colonial Goa; caste; Vimala Devi; literatura Indo-Portuguesa; conto; Goa colonial; casta

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Edinburgh

Publication date: 2009-03-15

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• The only English-language journal devoted to the literature, culture, and history of Portugal, Brazil, and the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa. Launched in 1985, it received the 'Best New Journal Award' of the Conference of Editors of Learned Journals in 1987. It publishes articles, translations, previously unpublished historical and literary texts, bibliographical information, and a survey of research and reviews.

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