• Spaces of Magic: Couto’s Relational Practices

    Author(s):
    Irene Marques (see profile)
    Date:
    2016
    Group(s):
    Lusophone African Literatures, Postcolonial Studies, West African Literature
    Subject(s):
    African literature (Portuguese), Portuguese speaking Africa, Africans--Social life and customs
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Luce Irigaray, Mia Couto, Mozambiqe, relational practices, Lusophone African literatures and cultures, Postcolonial literature
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6WM13T37
    Abstract:
    Through a detailed analysis of the story “The Three Sisters” from Mia Couto’s collection O Fio das Missangas (“The Bead Necklace”) published in 2004, I reveal how Couto recreates a space where relational practices are at the forefront of existence. I analyse this specific story to reveal Couto’s relational practices and its accompanying ideas of enchantment and mystical apprehension of the world because the story centers on the relational in terms of male/female relationships (the inter-personal) while also allowing the relational to be explored in terms of the trans-human (the movement from the human self to the non-human self, the Grander Self). My analysis also points to some similarities that exist between Couto’s writing with its close links to what I term African classical ontologies and epistemologies of holism and some aspects of Zen Buddhist philosophy and the philosophy of the French Feminist Luce Irigaray.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Book chapter    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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