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.

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.