Osman Lins and Mia Couto: an unexpected encounter up high

Abstract

Under the aegis of comparative literature, we propose a critical reading of A ilha no espaço, a novel by Osman Lins published for the first time in 1964, in comparison with the chronicle entitled “A ascensão de João Bate-Certo”, present in Cronicando, published in 1991 by the mozambican writer Mia Couto. Owing not only to the distinct conditions of each writer in relation to their place of enunciation, but also due to different aesthetic and political desires, at first the conduct of an analysis which implied some brief narratives with some success seemed to us unlikely. However, an unusual encounter - here understood only and exclusively as a critical exercise - can be justified, above all, by the obstinacy of their respective protagonists and also by spatial elements that favor in both texts the construction of simultaneously intriguing and dreamlike universes, which they inevitably reflect on our attitudes towards solitude, love, life and death, as well as a permanent desire for social elevation. In addition, through the rescue of less visited texts of two singular writers, invariably pointed out to the readership because they subvert and spread the potentialities of literary language, we can hear the same vibrant voices that have made them esteemed architects of the word.