Lugar de Massacre, by José Martins Garcia, and Terra Sonâmbula, by Mia Couto: converging perspectives on authoritarianism

Abstract

With the failure of the Portuguese project of overseas territorial expansion, resulting from the independence struggles of African nations, such as Mozambique and Guinea, and the subsequent overthrow of the Portuguese fascist regime, in 1974, a testimonial, documentary and revealing literature was established. living conditions of colonized nations. The most focused theme in these literary texts is war and its various implications, such as the most varied forms of violence against individuals. Thus, through the analysis of the works Lugar de Massacre (1975), by José Martins Garcia, and Terra Sonâmbula (1992), by Mia Couto, we seek to reveal the way in which both writers, of Azorean and Mozambican nationality, respectively, represent this theme, highlighting the distances, but, above all, the convergences between his novels. This analytical procedure is developed mainly from some of the main conceptions of the theorists of the Frankfurt School on the relationship between history and fiction, as well as on the concept of authoritarianism, problematizing the social and critical dimension of literary art.