A dessacralização do passado em As Naus: a ficção parodística de Lobo Antunes

Abstract

The demystification of the past, the search of Portuguese postmodern identity and the consequences of African decolonization for the ex-colons through the difficult process of readjustment to Portugal in the Portuguese novel As Naus, by António Lobo Antunes. The author recreates, through parody, the concept of being Portuguese. The author lived in Angola during the revolutionary process of independence of the country transcribing to his novel the horrors he witnessed. He shows not only the reality of Portuguese decolonization in Africa, but also the outbreak of the colonial occupation and its consequences for the Portuguese and their Angolan descendants, who are forced to return to Portugal. In the narrative, many of these returnees have names of famous Portuguese and world figures. In spite of carrying the identity of historical figures, these characters are very simple people. Often marginalized, they cannot thrive in Portuguese society. Particularly through parody, the author manages to combine two completely different moments of Portuguese history: the fifteenth century, gloriously marked by maritime conquests, and the twentieth century, the period of decolonization. The paradox of postmodern novels is revealed in the construction of a fragmented narrative, in the presentification of the past and its consequent mixing of temporal planes, in the multiplicity of voices and in experimentalism in language; among others.