THE CULTURAL MEMORY IN O VENDEDOR DE PASSADOS, BY JOSÉ EDUARDO AGUALUSA

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the presence of cultural memory in the novel O vendedor de passados (2004), of the contemporary writer José Eduardo Agualusa. The narrative of O vendedor de passados is about Félix, a man who forges and sells memories and noble pasts to individuals who make up the new angolan bourgeoisie. However, the conflicts in the novel get deep as the characters realize that there is no longer possible to clearly state wich past really happened and which memories are valid. According to the structural reduction system developed by the literary critic Antonio Candido (1993), a literary work, in its internal character, can acquire a structuring reality based on the external reality of the world, wich allows Agualusa to represent in his narrative an Angola marked by civil war (1975-2002), as well as several distinctly angolan cultural elements that keep protected and alive the memory of this social group. In this way, through mnemonic elements and resources, the author exposes historical conjunctures and the social organization of that Angola. Thus, the analyzes of this work will be subsidized in the thoughts of: Aleida Assman (2011) and Jan Assman (2011), with their contributuions on cultural memory; Antonio Candido (1993) and his system of structural reduction; and, Maurice Halbwachs (1990) with his theory of collective memory.

Keywords: O vendedor de passados. Cultural memory. Collective memory