Ewa Łukaszyk
Hybrid Identity as Anachronism, Object of Therapy and New Entity (the Portuguese Case)
Even though Portugal appears as a relatively unified country without ethnic minorities, shifting borders or disruptions in national continuity, the contemporary condition of Portugal's collective identity might be described as "unstable." This instability is caused by a peculiar suspension between the recollection of a past project on the one hand and the awareness of irreducible locality and a marginalized position on the other. The dilemmas of Portuguese identity are explored on the basis of the works of four authors (Fernand Pessoa, Alvaro Campus, Eduardo Lourenco and Jose Saramago) who, at various moments in Portuguese history, tried to define new constituents of national identity. Those attempts, ranging from the myth of the Fifth Empire to the idea of Portugal's spiritual journey, point to the hybrid character of Portuguese identity, born at the intersection of national community and anachronic forms of self-projection which mixture may nevertheless lead to the emergence of a new form of national identity.
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No. 9 (2004)
Published:
10.31261/errgo
English
Język Polski