“(Re)Construir a identidade através do conflito. Uma abordagem às Literaturas Africanas em Língua Portuguesa (1961-74)

This thesis discusses the elaboration of identity in the context of conflict, as well as its manifestations in the literature that was written in Portuguese, in Africa or by Africans, between 1961 and 1974. The continuous tension between colonial propaganda, the censorship system, political persecution of intellectuals and writers, as well as between the autonomist and independentist claims was manifested, in that period, in individual publications and in collective editorial projects. One can notice in the printed literary productions of that period the theories of Luso-tropicalism and of the idea of civilizing mission it conveyed, Pan-africanism and negritudinists ideas, as well as the role of international circulation of ideas and texts where the ideas of Angola, of Mozambique, but also of Portugal were often discussed.
This thesis discusses the practice of censorship and the conditioning of literary activity, subjects, ideas and the language that expressed those ideas. Writing and editing projects are discussed, in some alternative cases of considerable scope. The voices of some outstanding authors in this process are discussed, namely the cases of Luandino Vieira, José Ramalho and José Craveirinha , Alda Espírito Santo, Manuela Margarido, Noémia de Sousa, Deolinda Rodrigues and Alda Lara, with a fundamental role in the formation and consolidation of African imaginary of the time: these productions will be analyzed as active agents in the anti-colonial and feminist struggle, but also as texts in which multiple oppressions and subalternities converge: issues of gender, race and class.