O que é que estamos a fazer aqui? A relação com o lugar para os “Retornados”

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the literary production of "returned writers". The term returned writers those and/or belonged to the Portuguese-speaking colonies in Africa who were forced, with the Carnation Revolution and the end of the colonial period, returning to Portugal. These writers after years of silencing feature their stories or stories about your point of view on the events. Among the works and authors selected as literary corpus, are autobiographical works Sabor de Maboque (2009), Dulce Braga and Caderno de Memórias Coloniais (2009), Isabella Figueiredo; and the fictional works Os Retornados, um amor nunca se esquece (2008), Julio Magalhães and O Retorno, of Dulce Maria Cardoso (2011). It is observed in the analysis of the works, the problems faced by the characters about the feeling of belonging, especially after the departure of the Portuguese colonies, in this case, Angola and Mozambique and the process of adaptation to new spaces in which docked, Portugal and Brazil. The perception while returned or not is confronted with the construction of the Place/home based on experiences that these characters have experienced. In this path of self-awareness of characters, traveled the roads of historical context in order to understand the historical movements that led to their departure from these countries; in a second moment, walk by the theories of historiography, the importance of historical facts listed on the works. This story is not just a backdrop to the develop of the narratives, but fundamental element for the works; going to places of memory, in this phase, the aim is to understand the role of memory as element that does re-present the experiences of characters; and finally, we come to a place of the Place, where we realize that a Place is a social construct, mediated by territorial factors which vary according to the movements of individuals in that territory or to other territories, in processes of deterritorialization and reterritorialization; and that of a space marked by social practices, the experiences of these individuals, their everyday resignifications that modify these spaces in places and the more intimate become these experiences these are transformed into homes. In this way, through the route through these paths, it is understandable how the characters build their places/homes after the tribulations of the return, as well as about half a million people who have returned to Portugal with the end of the period colonial.