MACAU NA LITERATURA INGLESA英國文學中的澳門
This article analyzes the representation of Macau in English literature, arguing that the Anglophone image of the city results from an intertextual and diachronic production: travel accounts, poems, short stories, and novels construct a “chronotopic city” in which the territory functions simultaneou...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
October 2007
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40024/3683 |
| Summary: | This article analyzes the representation of Macau in English literature, arguing that the Anglophone image of the city results from an intertextual and diachronic production: travel accounts, poems, short stories, and novels construct a “chronotopic city” in which the territory functions simultaneously as an observed space and as a symbolic structure. Drawing on the history of the British presence in South China, the author contextualizes the appearance of Macau in works ranging from the sixteenth century (e.g., Richard Hakluyt and *Principal Navigations*) to twenty-first-century fiction, identifying recurrent themes and motifs. Methodologically, the proposal is grounded in a multidimensional reading of urban space and a semiotic framework inspired by the distinction between the symbolic, metaphorical, and metonymic levels of the city’s image, thus accounting for the heterogeneity of literary “visions.” As its main conclusions, the text maintains that Macau appears as a “frontier” between the West and the interior of China, frequently situated in adventure plots and in novels such as *The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe*, *City of Broken Promises*, *Tai-Pan*, and *An Insular Possession*. The city is thus mobilized as a stage for colonial asymmetries and as a narrative device to articulate time, power, commerce, and local colour, rather than constituting a homogeneous and stable portrait. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |