Space in "Quem me dera ser onda", by Manuel Rui

Abstract

This article aims the accomplishment of a study about the space category. The approach focu-ses on the markedly emblematic work of its time in the contribution’s context to its country literature’s enrichment and periodization. It is the Angolan Manuel Rui’s Quem me dera ser onda (2005). Quem me dera ser onda is a novel that depicts the circumstances of a population that, because of the Revolution (that is, the end of the colonial war, in 1975) tries to adapt to the new reality that is the result of the achie-vements of that Revolution. We can track the movement of suburb’s population towards Luanda urban areas and the challenges, the surprises with which they face this new life reality. Thus, it is narrated Angola’s post-independence events. Quem me dera ser onda has as its fundamental space the Angolan capital, Luanda great city that is going through a new experience due to people’s achievements, a demo-graphical expansion, in an unidirectional movement, from the suburb to the city, to the unknown. We will use an analytical and descriptive methodology supported by space’s concepts of authors such as Reis and Lopes (2000); Paz and Moniz (2004); Umbelino (2011) and especially Bourneuf and Ouellet (1976), who show the oppressive space as prevalent in contemporary novels. Because of the events’ confluence in the space Luanda, we consider it is important to deepen this category in the text.