Poetry in Mia Couto’s Novel

Abstract

In order to map Mia Couto’s novel, while avoiding both the colonialist aesthetic pattern and the elimination of differences, I take as my parting point two hypotheses by Sérgio Farina, that is, (1) the literary text takes one beyond him/herself. (2) For such, its poetic statute recommends a reading, which takes into consideration the historical-cultural environment, the multiple readings of the surface structure and the search for unity by the novel’s deep structure. Thus, Farina claims that to interpret a literary work means to exchange cultural experiences and to make a fusion of horizons. With Com Venenos de Deus, remédios do Diabo – as incuráveis vidas de Vila Cacimba, the writer Mia Couto returns to the theme of identities, speaking of the blending of cultures, in a story of encounters and flights, which takes place in an African site, tough it could happen anywhere in the world.