- From Renaissance to Post-Modernism: Rewritings of Myths in Britain and Portugal
- The Treaty of Windsor (1386) and 620 Years of Anglo-Portuguese Relations
From Renaissance to Post-Modernism: Rewritings of Myths in Britain and Portugal
The papers gathered here constitute the proceedings of a successful conference held at Wadham on the 7th of June 2008. The main focus of the conference was to examine how myths have acted as a creative stimulus in Portuguese Literature from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. Therefore, papers cover different genres (poetry, drama, and novel) and different historical and literary periods.
This collection includes a wide range of influential Portuguese authors such as Camões, Corte-Real, Faria e Sousa, António José da Silva, Fernando Pessoa, Florbela Espanca, Eça de Queirós, José de Saramago. We hope that this selection will not only benefit those who study the reception of myths but also those engaged in researching any of the authors mentioned above.
The concept of myth as explored in the conference reflects its complex nature. It is acknowledged that early modern authors use Classical myths dynamically and originally in their works. In fact, Greek and Roman myth pervades the culture of this period. As the proceedings of our conference will demonstrate, from lyric and epic poetry to chapbooks and drama, the recurrent use of Classical mythology in early modern literature reflects its importance in the cultural background as well as in the minds of the authors. Myths serve as an embellishment to the texts in which they are introduced; they become an allegory, at times serving moralizing interpretations. Furthermore, they are at the heart of independent mythological narratives, in which the poets themselves play an active role while mingling with Classical gods and heroes.
Professor Thomas Earle analyses the use of myths by some of the most prominent Portuguese poets of the 16th century (Sá de Miranda, António Ferreira and Camões), discussing different approaches to Classical mythology in their poetry, and analysing the role of the poet in the mythological narratives.
Dr Hélio Alves stresses the uniqueness of Corte-Real's last of three epics regarding the use of Classical mythology. Particular attention is paid to the rewriting of the myth of Eros and Anteros and to its role in the construction of the plot.
Dr Barry Taylor examines Faria e Sousa's mythological sonnets. The link between the sonnet and the epigram is also recalled, namely because Dr. Taylor argues that the admiration for the epigrammatic sonnet led to some poems of this type being attributed to Camões.
Professor Anne Sletsjoe analyses the literary recreation of the myth of the birth of Hercules in the Auto dos Anfitriões by Luís de Camões, discussing whether the play was written by means of imitatio or plagiarism of earlier appropriations of the myth. Alcmene is also seen as an example of the female figure of 16th century Portugal.
Dr. Richard Vernon discusses the recreation of the myth of Cupid and Psyche in the story of patient Griselda, widely present in chapbooks of the early modern period all over Europe. The paper contrasts the versions of this story in Portugal and England within literary and social conventions.
Dr. Juliet Perkins examines O Precipício de Faetonte (1738) by the eighteenth-century librettist of puppet operas, António José da Silva. Although the plot derives from Ovid, it soon takes a different course, to become imbroglios of love, jealousy and tyranny, acted out in a recognisably lisboeta environment.
From the 19th century onwards most of the papers approached the myth from a different angle. Myth is no longer understood as a re-appropriation of classical mythic narratives but it is understood by analogy with Barthes's concept of myth in his work Mythologies: a literary/social constructed reality which is passed off as 'natural' or a false representation and erroneous belief.
In this context, Dr Maria Manuela Lisboa explores how myth and utopia/dystopia materialize in the works of Eça, Saramago, Miguel Torga, Fernando Pessoa and Natália Correia as part of a reflection on Portuguese national self-identity. Dr Lisboa analyses the recurrence of apocalyptical narratives as well as national demystifications/mystifications in the context of historical and cultural turning points.
Dr Aino Rinhaug explores the "constructedness" of poetry and literature in the work of Pessoa and Blake. This paper seeks to demonstrate the mytho-poietic genealogy of Blake's and Pessoa's work and how these poets engaged with the idea of mythic poetic genius, being both a hero of the imagination as well as a representation of the national figure.
Professor Onésimo Teotónio de Almeida demonstrates in a convincing fashion how myth in Pessoa's Mensagem works by analogy with the notion of myth as theorized in Réflexions sur la violence by the French philosopher George Sorel.
Dr Antonio Ladeira exposes how Florbela's poetic self-portraits and lyrical production creates a system of signification upon which the feminine is constructed. Dr Ladeira analyses concepts such as 'femininity' and the 'woman-poet' in the larger context of a post-imperial Portugal suffering from a sense of emasculation.
Finally, Professor Fátima Silva examines how a contemporary Portuguese drama by Paulo de Miranda reworks the classical tradition of Helen of Troy as a spectre or a memory, acting as an excuse for each hero to follow his own intents.
The above papers reflect a variety of approaches and interests, ranging from the traditional reception of Classical mythology to the contemporary Cultural and Gender Studies perspective. Although myth has been analysed in Portuguese literature before, this conference represents a landmark in terms of the scope of genres and periods covered. We hope this pioneering endeavour will prove both useful and enjoyable for our readers.
Oxford, St Peter's College, 7th of November 2008
Ines Alves Mendes and Catarina Fouto
Proceedings - Publications Index (pdf)
Inês Alves Mendes and Catarina Fouto
The Treaty of Windsor (1386) and 620 Years of Anglo-Portuguese Relations
The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is the oldest in the world. Having started as a commercial alliance, it developed into a complex political and diplomatic one which has raised eyebrows in many quarters, especially in the late nineteenth century at a time when both the British and the Portuguese coveted territories in Central and Eastern Africa.
Commemorating the 620th Anniversary of the Treaty of Windsor this Conference shows how the (not always cordiale) entente between the British and the Portuguese has gone beyond political and commercial relations. Common (and somewhat worn-out) topics such as Oporto Wine, the Peninsular War or British travellers in Portugal generally to be found in conferences like this one, have been avoided, as only suggested by the list of papers (see Index). These were replaced by reflections on musical and book exchanges between the two countries, for instance, as well as on Anglo-Portuguese relations in the twentieth century.
The Conference opens with a paper on the Treaty of Windsor itself seen in its broader European context (and not only on within the traditional frame of Portuguese, Castilian and English ambitions) and closes with Macau's and Hong Kong's return to China in 1997 and 1999, respectively, a topic which has not been often dealt with.
Two of the papers deal with Anglo-Portuguese relations after the 1974 revolution showing how a six hundred year old alliance has adapted to a new world order. They also show how the 'imperial connection' played a capital role in the last quarter of the twentieth century, as it did in the 1880s and the 1890s.
Given the time span covered by the papers (600 years), the unusual range of topics and the fruitful discussion that followed, it is to be hoped that other gatherings like this may follow in the near future.
I would like to thank all the participants who enthusiastically joined the plan of the Instituto Camões Centre of organizing this event.
My thanks to my colleagues, namely Professor Tom Earle, for participating and having provided a beautiful room at St. Peter's and especially for the support he has been giving the Centre and its Director.
My thanks also to His Excellency the Portuguese Ambassador, Dr Fernando Andresen Guimarã'es, who promptly accepted the invitation to close the conference, and who from the very first moment has participated in and supported the activities of the Centre.
Oxford, 18 October 2006
Teresa Pinto Coelho
(Director of the Instituto Camões Centre
for Portuguese Language / St. John's College, Oxford)
Publications Index (pdf)