Skip Navigation


Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access originally published online on August 19, 2009
Forum for Modern Language Studies 2009 45(4):401-410; doi:10.1093/fmls/cqp111
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
45/4/401    most recent
cqp111v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rothwell, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No. SC013532.

This article appears in the following Forum for Modern Language Studies issue: SPECIAL ISSUE: Perspectives on Africa [View the issue table of contents]

Lusotropical Legacies in Germano Almeida's Eva, or Cruelty as a Staged Performance

Phillip Rothwell

Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
105 George Street
New Brunswick
NJ 08901–1414
USA

philroth{at}rci.rutgers.edu

  Abstract

Lusotropicalism claimed that the Portuguese, unlike other colonial powers, loved and were loved by those they colonised. The myth was co-opted by the Portuguese dictatorship just when the other European powers were relinquishing their colonies and making the transition to the neocolonial era. Almeida's novel Eva is a perfect example of how postcolonial lusophone African authors warp the lusotropical myth to critique the way contemporary power is exercised in the former Portuguese colonies. It is a masterpiece of staged cruelty that demonstrates, in part, how capitalism has come to dominate the postcolonial lusophone order, and, in part, how cruelty itself is a formal structure that is staged for the Other (not) to see. The text revisits every corner of the lusophone globe, but Lisbon asserts its primacy as the uncanny space where, if you cannot have love – for lusotropicalism was never really about love – you can at least stage cruelty.

Key Words: Portugal • Portuguese colonialism • Lusophone Africa • lusotropicalism • Freyre, Gilberto • Cape Verde • Almeida, Germano • cruelty • capitalism • saudade


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.