O CÃO E OS CALUANDAS AND ANTONIO CANDIDO’S CRITICAL METHOD

Luanda between utopia anda post-independence socialism

Abstract

The formation of Angolan literature, taking the long narrative as a cut, occurred in the 20th century, after the territory had been effectively colonized by the Portuguese, who displaced a local elite benefiting from colonialist policy from places of power. At that moment, when Lusitanian interests began to be questioned, the novel emerged, marked by national sentiment in opposition to colonial discourse. Further on, between the affirmation of specific aesthetic forms and the establishment of a national canon, were the creation of the Casa dos Estudantes de Angola in the city of Lisbon, the war of liberation and the institutionalization of the Union of Angolan Writers after independence. Located in the post-colonial period, and part of a set of works that promoted discussions about a national identity, is the novel O Cão e os Caluandas (2019), by Pepetela, which will be analyzed in this article. From the critical method, two issues will be objects of attention: (a) the identification in the text of the structuring element present in African literature in Portuguese and the qualification of aspects that correspond to it in the narrative; (b) the possibility of adjectivation that this element could assume as a mediating term in the way it was assumed by the text. To this end, in addition to research already carried out on Pepetela's work, formulations of the critical method of Antonio Candido (2006) and the literary macrosystem of Benjamin Abdala Jr. (1989) will be used as theoretical supports for reading the literary text.