"Ex-Centric" Lusofonias: On Remembered Language and Its Possible Futures in Portuguese-American Culture
Published 2016-09-20
Copyright (c) 2016 Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies
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Abstract
ABSTRACT: I re-examine the dynamics of literary resonance, not only in the works of two contemporary Portuguese-American authors, Katherine Vaz and Frank X. Gaspar, but also across the sites and common places of lived experience in southeastern Massachusetts, the place from which I reconstitute my own encounter with the Portuguese language and a region that, while it may fall clearly outside the official boundaries of the Portuguese-speaking world, has been as much a home for Portuguese language and lusophone cultures over the past 150 to 200 years as many of the other spaces officialized by governmental institutions, whether as part of Portugal and its empire or as part of more recent authorities, such as the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (in Portuguese, CPLP).
KEYWORDS: literary resonance, Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-American authors