Museu Da Revolução, by João Paulo Borges Coelho:

other Critical and Cultural Cartographies

Abstract

Based on conceptual debates around recent cultural cartographies within the field of African Literatures, this article seeks to explore possible theoretical frameworks to understand the narrative forms encompassed by the novel Museu da Revolução (2022) by João Paulo Borges Coelho. Considering the need to seek new and diverse ‘Declinations’ (Falconi, 2021) for the study of Portuguese-language African Literatures, we map recent theoretical reflections on Comparative Literature, discussing the aesthetic ensemble that Museu da Revolução incorporates in its structure. The article demonstrates how the narrative forms in the work are articulated from the ‘mundane’ dimension of the novel in its (ir)realistic, coastal, and ecocritical character, particularly highlighting the multiplicity of ways to narrate Mozambique’s past through discursive strategies aimed at expanding notions of history and fiction, as well as the coexistence of human and non-human materialities in post-coloniality. In this sense, the article is guided by critical and conceptual perspetives drawn from the field of World Literature (WReC, 2020); Indian Ocean Studies; and also from the field of Environmental Humanities and Ecocriticism, in an attempt to understand the complexity of the narrative identity encompassed by the work “Museu da Revolução”.