The Portuguese-speaking Diaspora: Seven Centuries of Literature and the Arts by Darlene J. Sadlier (review)

Darlene's Sadlier's new book, The Portuguese-speaking Diaspora: Seven Centuries of Literature and the Arts (2016), is an important contribution to one of the most vigorous fields of contemporary Portuguese historiography: namely, the study of the imperial and colonial pasts. Spanning seven centuries and all the continents where the Portuguese set foot, Sadlier's research focuses on the literary and artistic legacies of the Portuguese colonial empire and its diaspora. Clearly written, free of unnecessary jargon and inconsequential "theoretical" digressions, and based on close readings of literary works, maps, luxury and utilitarian items, travelogues, films (just to mention a few artistic representations of this history), The Portuguese-speaking Diaspora offers an invaluable journey though the arts covering every corner of a journey that, as Sadlier states in her Introduction, includes "leaving home, losing home, or returning to a home that is no longer the same" (1). To be more specific, Sadlier's book engages with literary and artistic works inspired by different types of travel from Portugal to the overseas empire, including Brazil, but also with works that deal with the return home of Portuguese migrants and how the perception of home changes due to the years spent abroad. In a few words, it can be described as a book that reflects on the encounters, missed or failed encounters ("desencontros") and reencounters of a population in movement since the first Portuguese enterprise of overseas expansionism in the fifteenth- and sixteenth centuries.

Sadlier's The Portuguese-speaking Diaspora achieves the same high level of excellence of such recently published works that deal with specific artistic, cultural, cinematographic and literary aspects of the Portuguese colonial Empire: Maria Carmo Piçarra's Azuis Ultramarinos, Filipa Lowndes Vicente' O Império da visão, and Nuno Domingos' Futebol e colonialismo. The Portuguese-Speaking Diaspora also compares well with Marcos Cardão's Fado Tropical, Marissa J. Moorman's research on music, and Margarida Calafate Ribeiro's and Ana Mafalda Leite's numerous contributions, just to mention a few others.

Sadlier's book has, nonetheless, the great advantage of giving the reader the "bigger picture" of the Empire without falling into generalizations. The book provides plenty of examples of how the political, the historical, the ideological, the literary, and the artistic intersect and condition each other. It is also a book that contributes to the reader's understanding of the immense complexities, transformations, and sometimes perplexities of imperial and colonial cultures where language(s) are the subtext. As the author affirms at the end of her book, "Whether representing movement back in time or travel in the present, they reveal the continued dispersion, comingling, and sometimes conflict of peoples and cultures in the far-reaching Portuguese-speaking world" (226).

The Portuguese-speaking Diaspora is a pleasant and invigorating reading experience for all those who are interested in the Portuguese diaspora. It also constitutes indispensable reading for specialists and students in the field, especially those who live in English-speaking countries, since it affords a vast understanding of Portugal's colonial past and its post-colonial present. The book represents the first and most successful attempt in the English language to bring the often times forgotten Portuguese-speaking diaspora to the American academia. Once again, Darlene Sadlier makes an important contribution to the world of academic research and to the public in general.