Memória e identidade em As visitas do Dr. Valdez, de João Paulo Borges Coelho

Abstract

This research reflects on memory and identity in the novel “As visitas do Dr. Valdez”, by João Paulo Borges Coelho, whose narrative presents and suggests an overlap between literature and history. The plot feeds on memories mediated by events of the present, thus becoming an important component in the construction of the identity and stories of the characters. The author fictionalizes the historical references, using them mainly as an element of social criticism. References to historical facts allow a glimpse of Mozambique during almost a century of struggles, beginning and end of wars, with memory being the crucial instrument to expand knowledge about postcolonial criticism. In this perspective, it is of interest in this research to analyze how memory is important for the identity construction of the main characters of the referred novel, since the record of the memory of peoples, at any time, has always been interconnected to the formation of identity, both collective and cultural and individual. This relationship arises from the need for self-knowledge and knowledge of otherness, that is, knowing who I am and who the other is. Thus, the incessant social changes experienced by modern man in a post-colonial moment influence and compromise the character of his identity, since events are crucial elements for the subject to constitute his identity from living with his social group, giving him the freedom to accept it or reject it the ideas and points of view presented by the group. The studies and reflections of Stuart Hall, Homi K. Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi and Edward Said were used during the development and construction of the dissertation. In addition, other scholars who discuss Portuguese-speaking African Literature are resumed, such as Francisco Noa, Inocência Mata, Nazir Ahmed Can, Pires Laranjeira and Fátima Mendonça, who had been helped reflections during the course of the research in relation to aspects of criticism of the colonialism.