Languages and Poetry in Goa -the archive of the British Librar

• Grant number: 16/02278-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: May 11, 2016
• End date: August 10, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Other Vernacular Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Helder Garmes
• Grantee: Helder Garmes
• Host Investigator: Paul Michael Melo e Castro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Leeds, England

Abstract

The main aim of the Pensando Goa: A Singular Library in the Portuguese Language (process 2014/15657-8) thematic project is the gathering together of Portuguese-language literary works produced in Goa or by Goan writers with a view to the reconstruction of this literary tradition, which today remains little known or studied. A great many of these texts are, however, not to be found in the archives of Goa or Portugal but rather on the shelves of the British Library. The first aim of this project is, therefore, to inventory and collect the Goan texts held by the British Library and to share them with all the members of the Pensando Goa team. The present project to be developed in Leeds aim is to use the unique holdings in the United Kingdom to produce two scholarly articles on four Goan poets. The first article will perform a comparative analysis of Nascimento Mendonça (1884-1926) and Joseph Furtado (1872-1947). The second shall treat Raghunath Vishnu Pandit, also known as R. V. Pandit (1916?-1990), and Mario do Carmo Vaz (1918?). These four authors represent two generations of poets writing in the different languages of Goa: Portuguese, Konkani and English. The idea is to trace the dialogue these poets established with the political and social reality of Goa and the way in which literary forms, themes and ideas circulated between Goan intelectual constituencies. The peculiarity of the Goan context, in which poets sharing an intellectual space operated in diverse languages, provides the mainstay of the methodological discussion this project shall contribute to the wider field of Comparative Literature