LITERATURE AND HISTORICAL MEMORY IN PEPETELA:

The literary representation of a space of hopelessness in the novel parábola do cágado velho

Abstract

This article analyzes the novel Parábola do Cágado Velho (2005), by the writer Pepetela, seeking to investigate how the civil war fought in Angola is represented in the present novel in question. The present analysis was based on qualitative methodology, with bibliographical surveys and elaboration of a hypothesis about the representation of war moments in the Angolan country inserted in Portuguese-language African novels. It uses the specialized bibliography of Ana Mafalda Leite (2013), Antônio Cândido (2014), Abdala Jr. (2009), Ernest Bloch (2005), Carmen Lúcia Tindó Ribeiro Secco (2009), Francisco Noa (2017), Inocência Mata (2009), José Luís Cabaço (2009), Magdala França Vianna (2009), Rita Chaves (2022), Sueli Saraiva (2013), among others, to understand the fictional space of the novel, as well as Angolan historical and political memory. Through analysis, it was observed that the novel presents literary representations alluding to the civil war (1976-2002), an armed combat between political parties that were involved in nationalist struggles. Presenting dystopian characters, that is, characters affected by the debauchery that post-independence armed combat devastated in Angolan peasant territories.