Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Globalization and lusophone world. Implications for citizenship

2011; Linguagem: Inglês

Moisés de Lemos Martíns,

Cultural Identity and Heritage

Is the idea of Lusophony, at present, a way of expressing the concept of lusotropicalism? In the representations of a lusophone supranational space of language and culture there is a lusocentric misconception. Portugal has always morbidly placed itself within them, haunted as it is by how different it is, or thinks it is, within the context of other peoples, nations and cultures. Eduardo Lourenco, the great Portuguese essayist alive, says that the dream of lusophone community, “a Community of Portuguese Speaking Peoples, be it well or badly dreamed out, is by nature [...] a dream of lusiad root, structure, intent and scope” (Lourenco: 1999: 162-163). I think, however, that Eduardo Lourenco’s wise warning does not tell in any way, the full story of the dream of Lusophony, and doesn’t even cover the whole dream that the Portuguese may have about Lusophony, as much as the Lusophone dream may for the Portuguese, fill the space of an imaginary refuge, the space of an imperial nostalgia, that today helps them to feel less alone and more visible everywhere in the world, now that the cycle of their actual imperial epic is definitely closed (Lourenco: 1983).