Lendo Angola (review)

Lendo Angola brings together a series of fourteen papers presented during the seminar on Angolan literature held in June, 2007, at the Centro de Estudos Sociais of the University of Coimbra under the auspices of the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and organized by Margarida Calafate Ribeiro. Its stated purpose is to stimulate dialogue among Angolan writers, national critics, and foreign commentators with a view to broadening the philosophical base on which future readings and reflections on the Angolan literary system may rest and from which they may be enriched.

This book is divided into two main sections: The first, "Lendo Angola pelas Vozes dos Seus Escritores," offers essays by Angolan authors Boaventura Cardoso ("A Escrita Literária de um Contador Africano"), Manuel Rui ("Eu e o Outro - O invasor ou em poucas três linhas uma maneira de pensar o texto"), José Luandino Vieira ("Literatura Angolana: estoriando a partir do que não se vê"), Ana Paula Tavares ("Contar Histórias"), and Ondjaki ("'As Raízes do Ar-co íris', ou O Camaleão que gostava de frequentar desertos"). The second (and longer) section, "Lendo Angola pelas Reflexões Críticas," is comprised of essays by critics Laura Cavalcante Padilha ("Literatura Angolana, suas Cartografias e seus Embates contra a Colonialidade" - a broad spectrum, with special emphasis on the fiction of Arnaldo Santos and Luandino Vieira), Inocência Mata ("Narrando a Nação: da retórica anticolonial à escrita da história" - focus on Pepetela), Luís Kandjimbo ("Os Itinerários da Identidade Individual de Agostinho Neto, um poeta da Geração Literária de 40"), Pires Laranjeira ("Leonel Cosme: um romance sobre a Independência de Angola na perspectiva dos brancos no Sul"), Tania Macedo ("Os Anos de Pólvora: narrativas sobre a guerra na ficção angolana contemporânea" - emphasis on Pepetela, Boaventura Cardoso, Luandino Vieira, and Ruy Duarte de Carvalho), Carmen Lúcia Tindó Secco ("Entre Passos e Descompassos, a Alquimia e a Resistência do Canto - reflexões sobre a poesia angolana hoje" - focus on João Melo, Lopito Feijóo, José Luís Mendonça, and Ana Paula Tavares), Élida Lauris ("Literatura e Direito: pluralismo jurídico em Grande Sertão: Veredas e Luuanda" - contrast of typical legal processes in the Brazilian sertão and and an Angolan musseque as depicted in GS:V and "Estória da galinha e do ovo"), Roberto Vecchi ("Choques e Poéticas In-betweeness nos Atlânticos Sul: modernidades em trânsito na formação da poesia angolana"), and Margarida Calafate Ribeiro (Um Desafio a Partir do Sul: uma história de literatura outra"). A short biographical section on participating authors and critics closes the volume.

The five author-commentators comprising the first quarter of the book offer an interesting collage of reminiscences of personal creative patterns, pre- and post-colonial Angolan literary developments and available publishing opportunities (e.g., editorial houses or the lack thereof), and the relationship between the oral and written word within the Angolan literary context. Responding to the implicit question of "When was Angolan literature really born?," José Luandino Vieira offers the hypothesis of "black holes" in Angolan letters - such as personal correspondence and ecclesiastical-historical writings dating back to the XVI century - that need to be taken into account, while Ana Paula Tavares takes up the issue of historical timeliness of literary works, especially those of Pepetela, Mário António, Uanhenga Xitu, Manuel Rui, and Lopito Feijóo.

In the volume's section of critical essays, there is considerable variation in quality and originality. Among the most original and thought-provoking essays are those of Carmen Lucia Tindó Secco, Élida Lauris, Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, and most especially Roberto Vecchi. Applying theories of Gramsci, Bhabha, Deleuze, and Gasparini, Vecchi seeks to differentiate the various "Modernismos" occurring nearly simultaneously in Brazil during the first third of the XX century and discern the degree to which each of these found resonance and acceptance by Angolan poets of the same...