Derek Jay Allen

Fellowship: Rocca Dissertation
Fellowship Year: 2025
Project Theme/Title: Postcolonial Identities in Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literature and Film depicting the Luso-African Wars for Independence and the subsequent Mozambican and Angolan Civil Wars
Abstract: My project will examine postcolonial identity formation in Luso-Afro-Brazilian literature and film depicting the Wars for Independence and the subsequent Mozambican and Angolan civil wars. Highlighting themes such as the tensions between modernity and tradition, individualism and collectivism, and political divisions between capitalism and socialism, I will explore the deconstruction of Portuguese colonial mythology, the traumatic afterlives of colonialism in the newly independent nations, and the role of literature and film as expressions of cultural resistance and tools of political intervention. Drawing broadly upon post-colonial theory and cultural identity theory, analysis of literature and film will emphasize cultural production as key to identity formation. As Bissau-Guinean and Cape-Verdean anti-colonial, revolutionary leader Amilcar Cabral states, “The value of culture as an element of resistance to foreign rule lies in the fact that, in the ideological or idealistic context, it is the vigorous manifestation of the materialist and historical reality of the society already under domination, or about to be dominated” (“National Liberation and Culture” 45). The project will be divided into four chapters by primary geographic area of emphasis, focused upon Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, and Portugal respectively, with each exploring how the complexities of postcolonial identity formation, evolution, and conflict are manifested in, and shaped by, novels and films through their intersection with politics during the armed struggles.