The living and non-living: memory and postcolonialism in O Retorno by Dulce Maria Cardoso

Abstract

O Retorno its a novel by Dulce Maria Cardoso set in the period of decolonization from Portugal, especially after the Colonial War in Angola. The independence of the country has caused the flight of hundreds of thousands of settlers, forced to return to Metropolis (Lisbon). In this scenario, the author reconstructs the life of a family of "returnees" from the perspective of a teenager. The purpose of this article is to seek to understand how the reflections of this young, combined with the author's memories - itself a "returned" -, refer to the feeling of not belonging and illustrate an odd facet of contemporary postcolonialism.