%0 Journal Article %T Memórias de um cárcere voluntário. José Eduardo Agualusa, Teoria geral do esquecimento %A Wolny, Anna %J Romanica Cracoviensia %V Tom 21 (2021) %R 10.4467/20843917RC.21.012.14067 %N Tom 21, Numer 2 %P 115-124 %K José Eduardo Agualusa, A general theory of oblivion, Portuguese post-colonialism, memory %@ 1732-8705 %D 2021 %U https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/romanica-cracoviensia/artykul/memorias-de-um-carcere-voluntario-jose-eduardo-agualusa-teoria-geral-do-esquecimento %X Memories from a voluntary prison. A general theory of oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa The paper presents an analysis of A general theory of oblivion, a novel by José Eduardo Agualusa, in light of the Portuguese postcolonial paradigm, specifically by Boaventura de Sousa Santos. It presents the trajectory of the protagonist, Ludovica, as a hybrid of a representant of the past, colonial tradition and a habitant of the emerging postcolonial reality. Agualusa shows two strategies of dealing with those conditions and, in a creative effort of constructing a new Angolan identity, positions himself on the side of the memory perpetuated through time.