Possible narrative: discontent and exile in "O Retorno", by Dulce Maria Cardoso.

Abstract

The present project proposes to analyze the novel O retorno, by Dulce Maria Cardoso, published in 2011, by taking into account the theme discussed in the narrative, as regards to the situation of exile in which several Portuguese were submitted during the maintenance of former overseas colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, until before The Carnation Revolution, by culminating with the return, in 1975, of more than half a million citizens to metropolis. In fiction, this context includes the issue of "returnees", in the face of an uncertain future that would drawn, both in terms to the political scenario of the nation, just freed from the shackles of Salazar, as the conditions of life and survival of early settlers, forced to start again their lives from a precarious and limited financial situation. Thus, the analysis of the novel in question will return to cultural studies connected with a historical perspective, within a comparative approach. Accordingly, the investigation will substantiate the theoretical reflections of authors like Eduardo Lourenço, Edward Said, Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Among other relations, in terms of the literary aspects of the narrative, within a comparative approach, the analysis will can dialogue with two other novels, which deal with the issue of Portuguese emigration, between the 50s and 60s, but against the backdrop of France such as Livro (2012), by José Luís Peixoto, and Pouca terra... poucá terra (1984), by Julia Nery. By the way, the corpus of analysis will be composed by texts which, according as the hypothesis of this essay, aim to a production which brings to first place weak subjects. They are permanently marked by diasporic feeling, of a non-belonging feeling. This idea seems to pass by all the romantic production of the author. Besides the proposed goal, the importance of this research is, mainly, giving continuity in the studies around the contemporaneous female authors, which were performed during the doctoral program of the applicant in the Portuguese Literature Department, at FFLCH-USP. This post-doctoral project intends to be performed in the scope of the line of expertise namely "Textos. Contextos. Intertextos", in consonance with the project coordinated and developed by the Sc.D. Professor Marlise Vaz Bridi: "A ficção portuguesa contemporânea de autoria feminina (in Portuguese)"