Entre vozes, caminhos e cantos: um estudo sobre a obra O outro pé da sereia de Mia Couto

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to contribute with and share knowledge about the identity theory, one of the most debated topics in Literary Theory, as quoted by Jane Tutikian (2006, p. 37), “thinking literature is to increasingly think the question of identity”. Therefore, despite the commonplace of this study, we understand that the question of identity in general and in particular is very complex, and lacks research that deepens the theories which discourse on the subject. In this sense, the work includes the literary analysis of the novel O outro pé da sereia (2006), by Mia Couto, in the depth study of the aesthetic elements that structure this novel, as well as the analysis of the main themes which compose its story, as the matter of miscegenation, religiousness, racism, in a project to build the identity of the Mozambican nation, provided by the literary art. For this, as a theoretical contribution to clarify such study, we will focus on the works of Stuart Hall, Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha, Silviano Santiago, Antônio Cândico, among others. Another important element to think the identity of the nation, which is vital in this work, is the language, observing it as a crucial element of the cultural heritage and the social criticism built by the novel. Hence, this research deepens the study of these elements to explain some aspects regarding the Mozambican nation, through the depth analysis of the characters, as well as the other aesthetic elements (narrator, space, time, language, and main themes), according to the theories that explain the topic.