The sea, the ship, the batle: survival of forms in 'Antologia da memória poética da Guerra Colonial'

Abstract

The book Antologia da memória poética da guerra colonial was published in 2011 by Roberto Vecchi and Margarida Calafate Ribeiro. As a poetry anthology, its purpose was to collect and give meaning to the poetical ma­terial that was created and inspired by the wars that have taken place in 1962-74 between Portugal and it´s old colonies. Among the many themes and problems proposed by the poems compiled in the volume, the review and the reclaim of the ancient Portuguese literary tradition is the one that interest us. In Antologia da memória poética da guerra colonial, the old lite­rary forms – the Galician-Portuguese love lyric, the navigation chronicles, The Lusiads’, the historical figures and heroic myths – are revisited in a creative and imaginative way. Our hypothesis is that the presence of archaic and traditional elements in the Antologia indicates a form of survival (Na­chleben) of past forms and tensions (cf. Aby Warburg), they are the traces of a literary tradition that renews itself from the same points (the sea, the conquer, the lost and the destruction).

Keywords

• poesia
• sobrevivência
• Guerra Colonial