A IDENTIDADE DA NAÇÃO NOS CONTOS DE LUÍS BERNARDO HONWANA, UNGULANI BA KA KHOSA E MIA COUTO

Abstract

The objective of this article is to verify, from the analysis of short stories by Mozambican writers, to what extent the diegesis is representative of the national identity. To do so, we selected texts by Luís Bernardo Honwana, Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa and Mia e Couto and analyzed the narrative categories, highlighting the space and relationships between the characters. Stuart Hall's postulates about identity were of great value in our analytical journey. The results indicate that in the short story Dina the identity of the young man from the corral group – a symbol of gaining political consciousness – is constructed in opposition to that of the colonizer and that of the Mozambican resigned with domination. In The orgy of the deranged, the protagonist, after finding his son, says that they are dead, expressing the feeling that living in that situation, during the Civil War, was equivalent alive but dead, that life was terrible, a real martyrdom. In the short story Rain, the blessed by Mia Couto, the return of the rain and the departure of the young man with the old man indicate that, with the end of the war, it was possible to have hope for reconstruction. However, building the future would depend on the meaning attributed to the past.