PLCS 23/24 (2013)
Other Articles

Portuguese Short Takes: Three Storytellers in Portugal's Post-Revolution Years

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62791/92gekm29

Published 2016-09-20

Abstract

Abstract: How does literature map a nation’s issues—namely, in the Portuguese case, the colonial war, women’s role, and gay rights? The novel has been fiction’s most successful form for the last two centuries, yet a case may be argued for a more compact form to convey modern-day conflicts. Joyce Carol Oates says that short stories are “a form ideally suited for the expression of the imagination.” Mário de Carvalho, Teresa Veiga, and Miguel Vale de Almeida wrote stories that, by the way they deal with issues and their mastery of the form, help to map contemporary Portugal.