Imaginary, Politics and Difference: Asymmetries and Difficulties

Abstract

The article proposes a panoramic look at the cultural assimilation policies undertaken by the Portuguese colonial regime and the composition of a cultural universe structured in the orbit of the Portuguese language and characterized by heterogeneity and diversity. The complexity and vastness of the literary corpus produced in these different spaces over the last few decades can offer important insights into the contemporary world, in which survival strategies for symbolic practices of colonial origin threaten the autonomy of individuals and populations. The article also proposes the formulation of a hypothesis: a political-cultural framework that directly involves modern and contemporary disputes over the imaginary produced in the different nation-states that make up the group of former Portuguese colonies. The central premise of this work is that the rationalities generated in southern worldviews and based on their own cosmogonies and symbolic universes, were identified as cultures of backwardness to be corrected in the civilizing processes of colonial modernity. Contemporary anti-colonial efforts imply a detailed review of the forces and vectors that acted and act in the assimilation of people and human groups to hegemonic Western rationalities so that it is possible to form a critical consciousness present in literary and essay texts and in cultural objects that outline new forms of resistance.