DE COLONIZADOR A COLONIZADO: O NASCIMENTO DO BRASILEIRO RETRATADO NA POESIA DE JOHN WAIN A PARTIR DA FIGURA DE FERNANDO PESSOA

https://doi.org/10.29327/211653.6.2-5

Abstract

The colonization process is one of domination and subjection. As Homi K. Bhabha (1998) points out, the colonizer adopts a convenient discourse for justifying the colonization with the argument that the ones to be colonized are inferior and incapable. Therefore, there is a need to educate and incorporate them to the civilized world, and that was indeed one of the premises adopted by Portugal, as one can read in the verses of Os Lusíadas, a fundamental oeuvre in Portuguese literature.The goal of this paper is to approach the colonization process from a different point of view: the transformation that fatally happens with the colonizer figure: of his becoming a native of the land he came to colonize. In order to do that, the author of this paper has chosen to analyze the poem written by John Wain, an English poet, that was published in Portugal in 1993, that focus exactly on this point: the transformation of the Portuguese colonizer, his physical and psychological separation from his motherland, culminating with his acceptance of his new persona: he ceased to be a foreigner in an unknown land, and the impact this fracture had in the former colonial power. The main goal is to show how this transformation process affected both the Portuguese colonizers and the Portuguese nation.