Portuguese Literature

[Stewart]

Well, we've met Fernando Pessoa and all who walk within him, courtesy of Heternonym and miriring, and I thought we should have a thread on Portuguese Literature in general because it's an area in which I, as I'm sure many, are not well versed in.

All that springs to mind is the Nobel laureate, José Saramago; and Eça de Queirós, who I get the impression is a sort of Portuguese Dickens, although that's probably far off the mark. I cant' say, however, as I've read neither of them.

The only other name that springs to mind, purely because it's an intermittent read at the moment, is Luis Bernardo Honwana and his We Killed Mangy-Dog, which was written in Portuguese, although he himself is Mozambican. And I suppose that qualifies Mia Couto, too.

So, the best and the rest of Portuguese: suggestions?

[Heteronym]

I'd compare Eça de Queiroz to Flaubert, actually. Zola was kind enough to say that of the two Eça was the best one. I wouldn't know since naturalism never interested me much. Eça is probably better known in America for The Crime of Father Amaro, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated Mexican movie a few years ago. His masterpiece is The Maias, one of those decline-of-family-through-generations novels, which preceeded Buddenbrooks and The Forsyte Saga. Eça had a great talent for wit and satire and is best work is all about making fun of 19th century Portuguese high society. What's disturbing reading his novels today is how Portuguese society is just the same nowadays.

Anyway, for my part I prefer his chronicles and articles; he stayed in England for a few years, where he wrote the marvellous Letters from England, a collection of texts on British society and other topics of the time, like the Israel nation, the British in Egypt, Afghanistan... He had a great eye for dissecting the spirit of his age and his non-fiction is full of fascinating observations about the 19th century; in particular he made good predictions about the rise of Islamic fanaticism and the decline of the British empire.

Now the book I really like is a novella called The Mandarin. I've often noticed that the best fantasy has been written by the most realistic writers, and it's no exception with Eça. This little book is about a man who meets the Devil in his room one day to make a deal: if the man rings a bell a rich Mandarin on the other side of the world will die and the man will inherit all his fortune. The man agrees and rings the bell. Consequently he becomes rich, but he also starts seeing the dead Mandarin in front of him all the time, which drives him mad. So he goes to China to try put the dead man's spirit to rest. And hilarity ensues. Read this book if you want to learn where the word Mandarin comes from.

I should add that Borges included this book in his Personal Library.

Dedalus Books has a lot of Eça's books available in English, but alas I do not see this one in their website.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Heteronym

Dedalus Books has a lot of Eça's books available in English

Yes, I was going to mention that. Incidentallly, the one you say is his masterpiece (The Maias) is currently on the shortlist for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. I think Dedalus' Eça project, which is to translate all his works to English, is due to finish in a few more years (The City And The Mountains is up next) so there's no doubt plenty of time for The Mandarin to become available. Is it a lengthy story? Because if it's short it may appear in the Dedalus Book of Portuguese Fantasy.

[Heteronym]

You know, I wouldn't have believed you could fill a book with Portuguese fantasy fiction. Our writers have seldom ventured into fantasy, horror and detective fiction, preferring that annoying thing called realism, which is why I love José Saramago, who writes in the tradition of the best magical realists like Gabriel Gárcia Márquez and Italo Calvino, and with the same talent.

I'm happy to see Dedalus Books also has also translated a couple of books by Mário de Sá-Carneiro. In Portugal his fame rests on his poetry, but Dedalus has started with his prose, which I find sadly underappreciated.

Sá-Carneiro was one of the artists who inaugurated Modernism in Portugal, along with Fernando Pessoa, although he spent a good part of his life in Paris, where he shot himself to death at the age of 26. He left behind some really messed up novels and novellas, including the wonderful Lucio's Confession, the story of a man who leaves jail after serving ten years for a crime he claims he didn't commit (killing his best friend) and now decides to tell the whole truth about it, even if his testimony seems unbelievable. It's a strange novel, encapsulating Sá-Carneiro's pet themes: suicide, madness, fascination with the grotesque, alienation, art, identity. No wonder Dedalus put it in the Decadence imprint. For people who like Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Verlaine or Cioran, Sá-Carneiro is a must.

[Heteronym]

On the 10th of June we celebrate the day Luís vaz de Camões, the greatest Portuguese poet and author of the epic poem The Lusiads, passed away. So I thought this was a good moment to compile names of writers available in English:

Luís Vaz de Camões: Portuguese literature starts with him; he is to Portugal what Cervantes is to Spain and Dante to Italy.

Eça de Queiroz: like Dante he's addressed by his first name; 19th century naturalist and delightful satirist, he's still very popular today.

Mário de Sá-Carneiro: one of the writers who introduced Modernism in Portugal, he was a poet, shorty-story writer and novelist and created some very unique fiction.

Fernando Pessoa: four poets in one, all his heteronyms are fascinating and each one wrote in a different style. He was good friends with Sá-Carneiro.

António Lobo Antunes: arguably the only contemporary Portuguese novelist who rivals Saramago, with a literary style as complex.

Lídia Jorge: another good novelist, especially famous for The Murmuring Coast, based on her life in Africa during the Portuguese Colonial War, a touchy subject for many.


There are other great writers: Miguel Torga, Agustina Bessa-Luís, Vergílio Ferreira, Gonçalo M. Tavares, but unfortunately they're not available in English yet.

[Stewart]

There's a novel by a Portuguese author recently translated and available in the UK, called Equator by Miguel Sousa Tavares. I suppose I'm looking specifically at Heteronym to ask whether they've read it and, if so, if it's worth the time?

[Heteronym]

Equator has had a lot of success in Portugal; therefore I don't have a lot of interest in reading it. Good as people say it is I don't like following trends. Furthermore, I'm committed to not supporting the book's publisher, which publishes the worst Portuguese fiction nowadays (outside of Paulo Coelho).

It's an historical romance, set in S. Tomé island in the glory days of the empire: it has love, political conspiracies, backstabbing. I think lovers of the genre should enjoy it.

A final note: Miguel Sousa Tavares is the son of a superb poet, the late Sophia de Mello Breyner. I wish she were the one being translated instead.

[ions]

Although born in Canada and much of his novel set in Canada Anthony De Sa's novel Barnacle Love is about a Portuguese immigrant coming to Canada. Barnacle Love was heavily influenced by his culture and upbringing.

[Jan Mbali]

"Who killed mangy dog" - I read it after working in Mozambique in the 1970s, shortly after independence. Remember the title story very clearly. Honwana captures the essence of Portuguese colonialism in a quiet, non-didactic way. Which is the most effective way, through a understated description of a social situation. Sometimes wonder what happened to him. Does anyone know?

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Jan Mbali

"Who killed mangy dog" - I read it after working in Mozambique fint he 1970s, shortly after independence.

I was reading this earlier in the year and started a thread for it. I forgot to go back and read the rest of the stories after the first two.

Sometimes wonder what happened to him. Does anyone know?

Have no idea. According to his Wikipedia article he went into politics, having been appointed director of President's office under Samora Machel and, in 1981, becoming Secretary of State for culture.

EDIT: I found this on the UNESCO site:

Mr Luis Bernardo HONWANA (Mozambique) studied law in Portugal, and in 1975 was appointed director of the President's Office in the newly independent Mozambique under Samora Machel, and then Secretary of State for Culture in 1981. He served on the Executive Board of UNESCO from 1987 to 1991 and was chairman of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for the World Decade for Culture and Development. He joined UNESCO in 1995 and was appointed director of the newly opened office in South Africa. Since he retired from the Organization in 2002 he has been active in research in the arts, history and ethno-linguistics.

[Heteronym]

It seems Honwana only wrote that collection of short-stories. This thread made me go out and get it, but apparently it's out of print in Portugal

[Stewart]

Since the Guardian world tour is currently in Portugal, I thought it may be interesting to take one of the questions from the comments and replicate it here.

Originally Posted by BillyMills

I'd like to ask the knowledgeable posters here how Portuguese writers relate to Spanish literature. Is it looked to as a source of models or is there resentment? What of the period of Spanish rule when Castillian became the literary language of Portugal, an influence that outlived the political reality? Is there a strong link with Brazilian writing? Any opinions and information would be really welcome by me.

Some interesting questions. Heteronym?

[Heteronym]

The Castillian language has no influence on Portuguese literature. The Spanish rule didn't last that long to create a deep relationship between the two literatures. Apart from the bestsellers, Spanish literature doesn't reach Portugal that much, unfortunately.

Now the relationship with Brazilian literature is different: there used to be such a tight connection in the past, that Machado de Assis could change Eça's style. It has a lot of respect here in Portugal: João Ubaldo Ribeiro, for instance, won the Camões Prize this year. Does it influence our literature? I wouldn't think so: Portugal is concerned with itself, with its recent colonial past (Lídia Jorge, António Lobo Antunes) or the conflict between urban and country life (Aquilino Ribeiro, Miguel Torga, Vergílio Ferreira). Writers like Saramago, who eliminate Portuguse culture in their work and embrance a global identity, are rarer.