DE LILIPUTE À CIDADE ONÍRICA. VISÕES DE MACAU EM FERREIRA DE CASTRO E MIGUEL TORGA從小人國到夢想之都：菲利喇‧狄‧卡斯特羅和米格‧托加作品中的澳門
This article analyzes the literary construction of Macao in two travel texts belonging to chronologically and culturally distinct universes: Ferreira de Castro's chronicles, recorded after his visit in 1940 (in *À Volta do Mundo*), and Miguel Torga's testimony, written after his stay in 1987 (in vol...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
July 2009
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40031/3600 |
| Summary: | This article analyzes the literary construction of Macao in two travel texts belonging to chronologically and culturally distinct universes: Ferreira de Castro's chronicles, recorded after his visit in 1940 (in *À Volta do Mundo*), and Miguel Torga's testimony, written after his stay in 1987 (in volume XV of *Diário*). The author proposes a comparative reading centred on the image that each narrator-traveller projects onto the territory, considering the distance of nearly five decades and the historical conditions framing their perceptions—from the "oasis-city" in a context of war and sanitary instability to the urban and communicational transformations of the late twentieth century.
Methodologically, the study articulates discursive analysis of descriptions and metaphors with attention to strategies of alterity (including forms of distancing from the "other," such as exoticism and cultural distance), exploring how landscape and everyday life are converted into literary signs. Among the findings, the alternation between a "Lilliputian" and romantic gaze—grounded in diminutives, personifications, and nostalgia for the familiar—and the emergence of exoticism stands out, particularly when the "Chinese city" is represented as picturesque, congested, and polychromatic. The conclusion is that, despite differences in tone, both authors produce Macao as a space of singular coexistence, where the cultural border remains visible rather than dissolving. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |