Description
Book SynopsisAn Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and through Knowledge Unlatched. This book represents the first attempt to query the contribution of women as cultural agents to the colonization, the anti-colonial opposition and the decolonization of territories ruled by Portugal in the African continent between the turn of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first. In contrast to the longstanding scholarship on the subject as regards other European empires, the entanglement of gender and colonialism has been ignored in the Portuguese case. Hence, this book takes a long view, surveying mostly little known historical and literary records that evince how "women" and "colonialism" were discursively constructed at particular points in time in view of a colonialist project that became the reason for being of the fascist authoritarian regime (1933-1974). A cultural studies approach of radical contextualization informs each of the five main chapters, in which documents from a range of disciplines are brought to bear on the main problematic of the female-authored works in focus. The latter are all written in the metropole as a place of colonial return and critical reflection. Beyond recuperating women's voices, this book suggests a story of Portuguese colonialism in the African continent that is anything but Lusotropicalist.
Trade Review“This book tackles the important but much neglected issue of the entanglement of gender and Portuguese colonialism. It is an outstanding study: authoritative, remarkably well researched and beautifully written. The chapters present an elegant mix of literary interpretation and historical fact, leading to the production of a new and much needed synthesis of otherwise disparate material."
Ana Margarida Dias Martins, University of Exeter
'Ana Paula Ferreira's book is a hard-hitting work which covers the writing of several Portuguese women, from the late 19th century to the 21st century, setting them in the context of the different political situations in Portugal throughout this period. This broad overview, which relates the work of several female authors, demonstrates the relevant contribution of the writing of a group of women who, each in their own way, became involved in the main debates of their time, leaving a testimony of those times through their writing. [...] The book makes a solid connection to the present day by pointing out another rendering of the guardanos' various contributions of writing by Portuguese women, who have always commented on the tensions and silencing of their society.'
Translated from Portugese:
'O livro de Ana Paula Ferreira é uma obra de fôlego que percorre a escrita de várias mulheres portuguesas, desde finais do século XIX até ao século XXI, enquadrando-as nas diferentes conjunturas políticas de Portugal ao longo deste período. Esta visão ampla, que relaciona o trabalho de várias autoras, conseguedemonstrar o relevante contributo da escrita de um conjunto de mulheres que, cada qual a seu modo, se envolveunos principais debates da sua época, deixando através da escrita um testemunho desses mesmos tempos. [...] O livro faz uma sólida ligação à atualidade apontando mais um render da guardanos vários contributos da escrita por mulheres portuguesas, que sempre comentaram as tensões e silenciamentos da sua sociedade.'
Joana Passos, Diacrítica
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter 1: Women’s Education, Nation and Late Empire
Chapter 2: Colonial Literature and Women: Variations on a Theme
Chapter 3: ‘Making Empire Respectable’ Between Miscegenation and Lusotropicalism
Chapter 4: The Coloniality of Gender and the Colonial War
Chapter 5: Lusotropicalist Entanglements in the Post-colonial Metropolis
Conclusion
