Outskirts, mediations, consecrations: the literary field from Mozambique (1975-2010)

Abstract

The aim of this research-a theoretical transdisciplinary perspective covering a large corpus of fiction-is to analyze the literary field of Mozambique within the parameters of size, density, intensity of ligations and hierarchy of relationships between distinct actors. We will seek to understand the literature of the country not only in its textual dimension, but also in its socioeconomic, aesthetic, ideological and institutional functioning. Thus, without ever neglecting the text itself (of writers with international dissemination and of "invisible" authors, whose works circulated only at a local level), we will evaluate: the weight of ideological and political influence in the cultural life; the socioeconomic and institutional components present (or envisioned) in the literary object; the statutes, reviews and features of literary networks; the social discourse of the writers and others actors of the literary field; the forms of financing of the cultural sphere (with its ambiguities and effects of "clientelism" and "patronage"); the role of schools, educational policies and the consequent formation of public in Mozambique, etc. All of these aspects, and others that are derived from them, have profound implications for the reception, production and circulation of literary product. For this reason, they will be analyzed diachronically, which is to say in the period encompassing the country's independence (1975) to 2010, and synchronically, because they are interdependent and show the dynamic character of this particular field. In short, we will study the degree of institutional weakness of the Mozambican literary field, detecting their "outskirts" (works without international diffusion), mediations and consecrations (often "confiscated" because dependent on international legitimacy). (AU)