Poética dos mortos em Terra sonâmbula, de Mia Couto

Abstract

The following paper has as its studying object Mia Couto’s Sleepwalking Land, considered the main African novel in Twentieth Century. In addition, its leading objective is to focus on death theme through symbols and metaphors interpretation in the literary work, this analysis highlights the destruction caused by Civil War in Mozambique, the cultural traditions going into oblivion and the colonizer political domination process and the native himself. Discussing from the dead Kindzu’s fantastic reports from his notebooks the relation between living and dead in the novel, people suffering due to political exploration power (necropolitical) and their fight for surviving and hope sighs. A bibliographical research that develops through hermeneutics whose approach shows in its perspective cultural and political aspects according to the consecutive theoretical contribution: Morin (1970), Mbembe (2016) e Guerreiro (2014), on death theme through a cultural and political vision. Related to African culture and studies on Mia Couto, Ribeiro (2010), Neto (2013) e Fonseca e Cury (2008); Metaphor and symbol concepts based on Ricoeur (2009) e Fiorin (1999). The present interpretation comprehends the novel Sleepwalking Land as a metaphor for Mozambican people and represents complain against explorers’ oppression, the ruins of a devastated people in agony searching to get a reunion with their history, culture, but also, to resignify their cultural identity and hope sighs through a dream.