Environmental crisis, world-literature and the Indian Ocean paradigm in João Paulo Borges Coelho

Author(s)

Gabriela Beduschi Zanfelice

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2023-08-30

Examining board members

Elena Brugioni; Jessica Falconi; Alfredo Cesar Barbosa de Melo

• Advisor: Elena Brugioni

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the works Índicos Indícios (2005a; 2005b) and Ponta Gea (2017) by Mozambican writer and historian João Paulo Borges Coelho, from a comparative perspective and in light of the theoretical debates developed within the scope of World-Literature and Ecocriticism. Considering the Indian Ocean as a transnational comparative paradigm, the text investigates, on the one hand, the ways in which these literary works register the environmental crisis caused by global capitalism, and on the other hand, how the Indian Ocean can be regarded as a comparative critical paradigm for the study of Borges Coelho's literary project. The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Borges Coelho's literature engages in a broad dialogue with issues stemming from the global environmental crisis, issues that are particularly reflected in its literary representations of the Indian Ocean, seeking to demonstrate how the narratives register the social and material conditions of Mozambican society without losing sight of their connections with the world-system and the global ecology at large. It is argued that analyzing the author's work as World-Literature and understanding its relations with the environmental crisis provides the possibility of an innovative critical engagement with the representations of the Indian Ocean and Mozambican Literature from a global perspective. Finally, the dissertation seeks to demonstrate the ways in which the works, which depict the Indian Ocean as a central element in their narratives, can provide theoretical and methodological tools to reconsider some of the critical paradigms and established analytical models in literary studies, offering a renewed perspective on Borges Coelho's work and its insertion into the theoretical and critical landscape of world-literature and environmental humanities (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 20/12785-6 - Environmental crisis, world-literature and the Indian Ocean paradigm in João Paulo Borges Coelho
• Grantee: Gabriela Beduschi Zanfelice
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master