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Portugal History Final Exam Homework

İlayda Tufan

19011122

Ankara University

Mário Tiago Paixão

January, 2024
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Abstract

“A collective and national identity, the “Portuguese identity” for example – if “that”
exists – takes root, not on History itself, or “factual History”, but on the narrative of History
and on the symbols that emerge from such narrative.” is an assertive expression about this
matter. But from my point of view, it cannot be denied the fact that it’s true. In this work, I will
state my opinions about the quote above by presenting some examples from Portuguese History
and refering to some articles wrotten about the same subject as well.

Keywords: Portuguese History, national identity, narrativity.

1. Introduction

Above all, what is a national identity? National identity is the formation of common
consciousness and language through the establishment of a common history, national view,
ethical values, emotions, remembrances and customs firmly in all individuals in a society.
(Doruk & Mengü, 2013) This idea is quite complex and includes characteristics, symbols, and
historical stories that help everyone in a nation feel like they belong together. National identity
affects how people see themselves and others in their country.

About Portuguese identity, the components which create it should be stated.

• Language: Portugal’s official language is Portuguese and it takes part in

Romance languages. It has a unifying feature as it gathers Portuguese people. Like
Fernando Pessoa said: “My homeland is the Portuguese language.”
• History: As one of the oldest countries in Europe, Portugal has a rich history with
remarkable events. Its history can be considered as a “root” when it comes to a
national identity for having such big effect on it.
• Culture: Portugal has a very important cultural heritage in areas such as
traditional music, dance, art and literature. Examples such as Fernando Pessoa in
literature, Fado in traditional music and Vieira da Silva in art can be given to
justify this fact.
• Cuisine: Pastel de nata, Bacalhau com Natas (my personal favorite), Bifanas…
How can it be ignored the fact that they have a role in Portuguese identity? It
contributes to a distinctive cultural identity without any doubt.
• Religion: A major part of Portuguese people consider themselves as “Catholics”.
Of the remaining population, 3.3% identify with some other denomination of
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Christianity, 0.6% identify with some other religion (including those who identify
as Jewish or Muslim), 6.8% identify with no religion, and 8.3% did not specify a
religious affiliation. (Scroope, 2018) It can be stated that religion gathers people
in that case.
• Symbols: In this section, Portugal’s flag can be given as an example. It’s the
symbol of a great nation and gathers people around itself.
• The Feeling Of Saudade: Saudade is longing, melancholy, nostalgia, as a
supposed characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament. (Oxford
English Dictionary, n.d.) It’s an important symbol in Portuguese identity.

Although mostly history takes a big part of Portuguese identity, these

components mentioned above have a role in it as well. But in this essay, history and
its narrative is going to be the main object.

In the quote, there’s a doubtful expression about a collective and national

identity. In my opinion, it does exists and unifies people in the shadows of the
components I’ve mentioned above. It distinguishes a nation from other nations but
not in a discriminative way. I believe there’s nothing wrong about having a distinctive
identity.

2. Portuguese History and Narrativity

History is based on the facts that happened in the past and it helps us to understand
what, when, where and why an event occurred. It has a big role in every country’s national
identity. But, is it only a list of facts or more? The interpretation of history is also a matter
that should be questioned in that case. How can history be interpreted? Of course, the
answer is “narrativity”. Hayden White, in its article named “The Value of Narrativity in
the Representation of Reality” tries to emphasize that facts can’t speak for themselves,
they should be interpreted. If they’re not interpreted, then they are meaningless. And if
they are meaningless, there’s no history to be known. His article is going to be one of the
main references throughout this essay.

Narrativity is the best form of interpretating the historical facts. It sometimes uses
“fiction” while narrating the facts. According to White, narrativity has a much more deep
purpose in the concept of history than just presenting the facts. They just don’t narrate
events that happened in the past in a straight way. On the contrary, they handle these facts
and create them into a meaningful and coherent structured stories. So natural is the
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impulse to narrate, so inevitable is the form of narrative for any report of the way things
really happened, that narrativity could appear problematical only in a culture in which it
was absent-absent or, as in some domains of contemporary Western intellectual and
artistic culture, programmatically refused. (White, 1980)

I will explain the role of narrativity in history with an interesting expression. History
is a piece of wood, waiting to burn in flames. Narrativity is a lighter that can make fire.
Together, they make a fire. This flame is power. It’s stronger. Without this power, history
is plain. But with narrativity, it has more significance. Narrativity creates a deeper
perspective about the facts and helps people to understand it better. In this matter,
narrativity is essential for a nation to understand and define themselves. Every Portuguese
person can tell this: “Age of Exploration started in 15th century and it has an important
place in Portuguese History.” Because it’s a fact that is known by almost all around the
world. How they know this? Thanks to narrativity and its interpretation of the facts. Or
how many people can talk about its reasons and conclusiones? For me, the ones who had
this knowledge from narrative sources can talk. If narrativity didn’t have a role in the
interpretation of history, we wouldn’t know about the Lisbon earthquake, foundation of
Portugal, Treaty of Tordesillas or Carnation Revolution. Or we would know much less.

I would like to refer to Fernando Pessoa’s book called “Mensagem (Message)” as

it is a great example of narrativity of history. In this book, Pessoa refers to historical facts
by using a form of narrativity which is poetry. Even though he’s not interpreting the whole
fact directly, he is giving ideas about what happened in general. From my perspective,
this form of narrativity gives much more powerful significance to historical facts. That’s
why I agree with the quote which is the base of this work. It drives Portuguese people to
question their own national identity.

Narrating can be done not only through words or literature, but also through art and
music. When we think of Portuguese traditional music, the first thing that comes to our
minds is Fado for sure. It’s not only a music type, but also a national symbol of Portugal.
Fado means ‘destiny’, ‘doom’ or ‘fortune’, but it also came to designate the type of song
that deals with saudade (missing someone and longing or yearning to be with them), love
and betrayal. (Martins, 2012) From Portuguese folk, the song called “Vou-me Embora,
Vou Partir” is about Portuguese sailors in the Age of Discoveries. “Vou-me embora, vou
partir; mas tenho esperança. De correr o mundo inteiro: quero ir! Quero ver e conhecer,
rosa branca, A vida do marinheiro, sem dormir!” (English Translation: I'm going away,
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I'm going to leave; yet I hope. To travel across the whole world: I want to go! I want to
see and know, oh white rose, The sleepless sailor's life!) It’s an interesting way to narrate
something related to history but it cannot be ignored the fact that it has a role in the
interpretation of history.

When it comes to art, there are some great examples which narrates historical facts
about Portugal. As in every country’s art, there are the portraits of rulers or important
historical figures. But also there are the ones which narrate an event that happened in the
past. There’s a painting called “Namban folding screens” from 17th by the Japanese artist
Kanō Naizen. The painting is exhibited in MNAA National Museum of Ancient Art in
Lisbon, Portugal. It narrates Portuguese sailors’ “accidental” arrival to Japan during the
explorations. The arrival of the Portuguese in Japan in 1543 gave rise to commercial and
cultural exchanges that were recorded in these two pairs of screens: the curiosity and
festive atmosphere aroused by the arrival of the black ship of the namban jin (the
barbarians from the south, as the Portuguese were called) in the port of Nagasaki. The
great detail with which the various participants in the scene are depicted, the description
of the vessel and its valuable cargo, and the presence of the Jesuit missionaries which is
so crucial in this context, make these pieces a unique historical and visual document about
the relations between Portugal and Japan. (Google Arts & Culture, n.d.)

3. Conclusion

Throughout the essay, I justified my opinion about the narrativity and its
importance in terms of the interpretation of history. I strongly believe that narrative
of history has a big impact on a collective and national identity as it helps the nation
to understand and question their existence as united, their historical and cultural
heritage and even the significance of the blood that flows in their veins better. And
also, like I stated above, without narrativity, the interpretation of history is plain.
Narrativity gives history a powerful attitude. To conclude, I can say that I accept the
existence of a national identity and agree that it takes root not on history itself, but
also on the narrative of history and the symbols.
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Bibliography:

Doruk, E. & Mengü, S. (2013). Adoption of National Identity in Metropolises: A Study

in Istanbul. Selçuk İletişim, 4(1), 171-182. https://doi.org/10.18094/si.55917

Google Arts & Culture (n.d.). Namban folding screens - Seal of Kano Naizen.
https://g.co/arts/cGsnzs27ExsbFStx

Lyricstranslate.com. (n.d.). Portuguese Folk - Vou-me embora, vou partir lyrics + English
translation. https://lyricstranslate.com/en/vou-me-embora-vou-partir-im-going-away-im-
going-l

Martins, C. (2012). Portuguese history storyboard. In Silva, Elisabete; Pais, Clarisse; Pais,
L.S. (Eds) Teaching Crossroads: 7th IPB Erasmus Week. Bragança: Instituto Politécnico.
p. 145-169. ISBN 978-972-745-128-9. https://bibliotecadigital.ipb.pt/handle/10198/7004
eave.html

Oxford English Dictionary (n.d.). Saudade.

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/saudade_n?tl=true&tab=meaning_and_use

Pessoa, F. (1934). Mensagem. ISBN 978-179-471-017-7.

Scroope, C. (2018). Catholicism in Portugal. Cultural Atlas.

https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/portuguese-culture/portuguese-culture-religion

White, H. (1980). The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality. Critical

Inquiry, 7(1), 5–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343174