BODY, SPACE, AND KNOWLEDGE IN CONTEMPORARY MOZAMBICAN POETICS

Abstract

This article aims to analyze contemporary poetry in Mozambique through the works Os Ângulos da Casa by Hirondina Joshua and de terra, vento e fogo by Lica Sebastião, reflecting the new perspectives and poetics introduced by female authorship in the Mozambican literary corpus. As Leite (2009) reminds us, literature, or poetry, occupies a space of form-shelter in writing, thus constructing a locus of action and (re)existence for the subjects who articulate themselves, as well as their possibilities of representation. This conception also aligns with reflections on the contemporary in literature and, above all, the reinvention of contemporaneity, as mentioned by Noa (2015). In this context, the study seeks to investigate how the poetics of these authors construct a dialogue between the individual and the universal, the intimate and the collective, the real and the fictional, through the proposed metaphors of body, nature, and space. Furthermore, the literatures in question provoke readings that reflect the construction of knowledge and the power dynamics in which this epistemological process is contextualized, creating an emancipatory singularity as an aesthetic-literary identity project. Thus, in addition to the aforementioned authors, this study proposes an analysis based on the critical considerations of Curiel (2020), Mbembe (2019), as well as Manjate (2015) and Mendonça (1995), reflecting on the expressions of the self in lyrical poetry and aspects encompassing contemporary poetic expression in this territory.