Publicação
The memorialization of empire in postcolonial Portugal: identity politics and the commodification of history
| Resumo: | The entire experience of modern imperialism has profoundly shaped Europe- an national identities in ways that continue to matter in postimperial times. This is also true of Portugal; as the first and the most enduring of the European colonial empires, its end did not erase the self-image of the country as an imperial nation. Although re- fashioned in a matter of style and content, major public representations of the nation’s collective identity remain anchored in the memory of empire. This official memory com- bines a strong emphasis on the period of the “Maritime Discoveries” with the represen- tation of Portugal as the pioneer of cultural dialogue on a global scale and of the Portu- guese as “inventors” of the modern world. In this article, I will address some examples of the way in which Portugal’s imperial history has been memorialized to convey the coun- try’s “brand image,” for the purposes of both identity politics and the tourism industry. |
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| Autores principais: | Peralta, Elsa |
| Assunto: | Public memory Portuguese empire Nationalism Cosmopolitanism Com-modification Memória pública Império Português Nacionalismo Cosmopolitismo Comodificação |
| Ano: | 2022 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | The entire experience of modern imperialism has profoundly shaped Europe- an national identities in ways that continue to matter in postimperial times. This is also true of Portugal; as the first and the most enduring of the European colonial empires, its end did not erase the self-image of the country as an imperial nation. Although re- fashioned in a matter of style and content, major public representations of the nation’s collective identity remain anchored in the memory of empire. This official memory com- bines a strong emphasis on the period of the “Maritime Discoveries” with the represen- tation of Portugal as the pioneer of cultural dialogue on a global scale and of the Portu- guese as “inventors” of the modern world. In this article, I will address some examples of the way in which Portugal’s imperial history has been memorialized to convey the coun- try’s “brand image,” for the purposes of both identity politics and the tourism industry. |
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