Discourses of history in portuguese children's literature: intertextuality and parody

Abstract

Parody which is constructed upon the recreation / recuperation of fragments of History and historical figures, who are often set against imaginary entities, mythological beings or other characters who exist, for example, in the diegetic contexts of contemporary literature, seems to be one of the most profitable and recurring strategies of humour within Portuguese children’s literature. But if this is one of the most frequent and well-received way of young readers can look back to the past, the contact with fictional discourses which are promoted by a memory exercise, originated, for example, by literary hypotexts, can also be productive in the conformation of a literary competence. This paper will reflect upon this theme by cross-reading a body of texts which includes works such as Inácio Nuno Pignatelli’s A Verdadeira História da Batalha de S. Mamede (2000), Luísa Ducla Soares’s A Nau Mentireta (1992), Manuel António Pina’s Aquilo que os Olhos Vêem ou O Adamastor (1998) and O Tesouro (1993), and José Vaz’s A Fábula dos Feijões Cinzentos – 25 de Abril, como quem conta um conto (2000). This is a set of works that is born out of the fictionalization of crucial moments in Portuguese history –, the dawn of Portuguese nationality in the first case; the great sea voyages (the so-called Discoveries) in the second and third; and the 25th April 1974 Revolution in the two last ones – works which stand out either for their innovative and strong comic component or for the importance of memory in the returning and in the recreation of the past, as time of the plot.