Territorializing the Indian Ocean: questions on world-literature

• Grant number: 19/07859-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 29, 2019
• End date: December 01, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Comparative Literature
• Principal Investigator: Elena Brugioni
• Grantee: Gabriela Beduschi Zanfelice
• Supervisor: Paulo Renato de Sousa Aguiar de Medeiros
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Warwick, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 18/20953-6 - Territorializing the Indian Ocean: transnational imaginaries and World-Literature in João Paulo Borges Coelho, BP.IC

Abstract

This Research Project constitutes a proposal for an Internship Abroad Research Program (BEPE-IC). It seeks for a deepened understanding on questions surrounding the World-Literature debate such as conceptualized by the Warwick Research Collective (WREC) at the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies of the University of Warwick (UK). In order to develop a coherent articulation of the fields of Indian Ocean Studies, Postcolonial Theory and World-Literature in the main Scientific Initiation Project (FAPESP 2018/20953-6), a thorough comprehension of WREC's materialist commitment to the cultural implications of the theories of combined and uneven development becomes crucial. In light of the world-systems perspectives, World-Literature will be examined as a potential new paradigm for the study of African Literatures, specifically through an analysis of the work of Mozambican author João Paulo Borges Coelho. We argue that our understanding can provide novel tools and methodologies with which to read and problematize African Literatures in a comparative perspective. (AU)