Reimaginar a Europa
MEMOIRS offers a radical vision of contemporary European history, interrogating the crucial role of its multiple colonial heritages. These legacies are a common factor in the identities of individual nation states across the continent. Among the different European colonial models, MEMOIRS analyses the overseas model of Portugal, Belgium and France, as crucial for an understanding of the modern-day continent.
The innovative character of the project expresses itself in its fundamental research question: what is the impact on the continent today of transferred memories of the twilight of European colonialism?
MEMOIRS aims to map out a new cartography of European memory, by reconceptualising the colonial heritage as a part of European identity and not as something to be ignored. We assume that the memories of those affected by the end of Europe’s empires and of those whom colonialism othered are a constitutive part of Europe, which implies an epistemic shift in the way we view the continent’s history and a reversal of historical and narrative paradigms.
MEMOIRS intends to contribute to promoting a greater sense of collective responsibility toward the past and the present.
MEMOIRS focuses on the intergenerational memories of the children and grandchildren of those involved in and affected by the decolonization processes in France’s, Portugal’s and Belgium’s colonies in Africa – Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC), Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. Through interviews and comparative analysis of the cultures influenced by the postmemory of colonial wars and the end of empires, we interrogate Europe's postcolonial heritage. At the heart of the project is a desire to understand the challenge of living in postcolonial Europe, a multicultural society marked by strong, although often latent, residues of apparently forgotten empires.
MEMOIRS is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (no. 648624) and is hosted at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra.
Phone: +351 239 855 570
Address: Centro de Estudos Sociais
Universidade de Coimbra
Colégio da Graça
Rua da Sofia, nº136
Apartado 3087
3000-995 Coimbra
Portugal
The innovative character of the project expresses itself in its fundamental research question: what is the impact on the continent today of transferred memories of the twilight of European colonialism?
MEMOIRS aims to map out a new cartography of European memory, by reconceptualising the colonial heritage as a part of European identity and not as something to be ignored. We assume that the memories of those affected by the end of Europe’s empires and of those whom colonialism othered are a constitutive part of Europe, which implies an epistemic shift in the way we view the continent’s history and a reversal of historical and narrative paradigms.
MEMOIRS intends to contribute to promoting a greater sense of collective responsibility toward the past and the present.
MEMOIRS focuses on the intergenerational memories of the children and grandchildren of those involved in and affected by the decolonization processes in France’s, Portugal’s and Belgium’s colonies in Africa – Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC), Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. Through interviews and comparative analysis of the cultures influenced by the postmemory of colonial wars and the end of empires, we interrogate Europe's postcolonial heritage. At the heart of the project is a desire to understand the challenge of living in postcolonial Europe, a multicultural society marked by strong, although often latent, residues of apparently forgotten empires.
MEMOIRS is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (no. 648624) and is hosted at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra.
Phone: +351 239 855 570
Address: Centro de Estudos Sociais
Universidade de Coimbra
Colégio da Graça
Rua da Sofia, nº136
Apartado 3087
3000-995 Coimbra
Portugal
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Papers by Reimaginar a Europa
A minha história é diferente. Normalmente, as pessoas quando olham para mim dizem "mais uma filha de um retornado" e eu explico: "não, não é bem isso”. Nasci a 12 de março de 1959, em Luanda, Angola e cheguei a Lisboa em 1975. O meu pai é português, foi para Angola de castigo porque não quis tirar o curso superior. A sua família abrasonada e de posses, do norte de Portugal, enviou-o para África trabalhar.
Temos de nos habituar a pensar que sempre habitámos um espaço maior que nós e por isso mesmo sem sujeito. É a parte de verdade da nossa imperial ficção. Contentemo-nos hoje com a ficção dessa verdade. E adaptemo-nos em casa e fora dela a essa ficção. (Lourenço, p. 269)
No referido ensaio, Eduardo Lourenço defende a ideia segundo a qual, na percepção sobre a descolonização durante os anos 1980 em Portugal, mantinha-se a atitude de “desdramatização” quanto ao facto colonial, a coberto da ideia imperialista do regime salazarista de uma “colonização diferente”.
Autores: António Pinto Ribeiro, Francisco Noa, Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, Nazir Ahmed Can, Nuno Simão Gonçalves, Phillip Rothwell, Rita Chaves, Roberto Vecchi, Sandra Inês Cruz, Tania Macêdo
Imagem de capa: «O Homem-Reflexo», 2017. Soldagem com armas e metais desativados / Gonçalo Mabunda / Cortesia da Jack Ball Gallery.
Ambicioso projeto sem dúvida, mas necessário, hoje, no contexto do que, para uns, se tem vindo a designar como literaturas de língua portuguesa e, para outros, literaturas lusófonas.
Ensaios de: Inocência Mata, Francisco Noa, Tania Macêdo, Ana Cordeiro, Moema Parente Augel, Carmen Lucia Tindó Ribeiro Secco, Rita Chaves, Sílvio Renato Jorge, Dorothée Boulanger, José Luís Pires Laranjeira, Inês Nascimento Rodrigues, Sandra Inês Cruz, Alexandra Reza, Nazir Ahmed Can, Vincenzo Russo, Raquel Ribeiro, Roberto Vecchi, Fernanda Vilar, Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, Felipe Cammaert, Phillip Rothwell, António Pinto Ribeiro.
Imagem: sem título | 2018 | Nu Barreto (cortesia do artista e da Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris)
As Voltas do Passado: A Guerra Colonial e as Lutas de Libertação
Miguel Cardina; Bruno Sena Martins (org.)
2018, Lisboa: Tinta da China, 332-337
Francisco Bethencourt (ed.)
2018, Sussex: Sussex Academic Press
António Sousa Ribeiro | Margarida Calafate Ribeiro (org.)
2016, Porto: Afrontamento
Ivan Domingues e Roberto Vecchi (org.)
2018, Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG