Between Moving Maps and Mythic Waters, a few mirror games in O outro pé da Sereia, by Mia Couto

Abstract

Reading of the novel O outro pé da sereia (2006), by Mia Couto, emphasizing the effect of the game of mirrors, from the articulation of the postmodern context and post-colonial condition, we underline the novel as a polyphonic text, composed by mapping a past and historic time that gives way to a mythical time of origin and birth of the ritual representation of the spirit of the waters, and the present time, with flexible boundaries, which lets it be flooded by the shifting lines of ancient charms. In a reading of myths and rituals of African origins, the novel reveals the intricacies of its own textual construction, bringing up the plurality of representations of Kianda and its consequences in the collective imagination of Africa.