Luandino Vieira's Short Fiction: Decolonization in the Third Register

The central theme of Luandino Vieira's short fiction is the «anthropological» daily existence in the musseques, slums, which surround the city of Luanda. The socio-political question of the epoch—the liberations movements and the repression by the colonial rulers—do not escape the author's view. Prior to the publication of Luandino's works, the language of Angolan fiction was indistinguishable from that of standard Portuguese fiction. The relationship of Quimbundo, the Bantu dialect of Luanda, and Portuguese is the key to the originality of Luandino's works. This becomes quite evident in the collections Velhas estorias and No amigamente na vida. Language register is Luandino's prime consideration. The «establishment» figures of the stories speak in Portuguese, while the people of the musseques function in Quimbundo. When the two social groups come into contact so do their languages. The result is a third register of speech, one which reflects the PortugueseQuimbundo heritage and results in a new literary language. The basic contribution of Quimbundo is within the lexico-semantic area. In addition to a large number of Bantu words, new shades of meaning are given to common Portuguese terms through innovations in their traditional meaning and usage, as well as through their recreation along African language principles. Portuguese contributes its wealth of morphemes—principally suffixes—which enhance the Quimbundo vocabulary. Syntax is similarly recreated. Although Luandino's short fiction has been called hermetic, it does present an epoch of Angolan society. Its existence is an affirmation of national independence. This article is available in Studies in 20th Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol4/iss2/10 LUANDINO VIEIRA'S SHORT FICTION: DECOLONIZATION IN THE THIRD REGISTER* IRWIN STERN Columbia University Contemporary linguistic theory views language as a human artifact, that is, an utensil of man's existence which can be shaped according to his changing conditions and needs.' The languages-incontact phenomenon readily attests to this attitude. We can speak of the influence of ancient Greek on Latin, of Arabic on Spanish, or of French on old English with the resultant linguistic modification or enrichment of Latin, Spanish, and English as some outstanding examples of this phenomenon at work. It has been only within the last quarter century that any serious critical consideration and attention has been given to the literary product of modern examples of languages-in-contact, or to what has been called «bilingual literature.» 2 African literatures in the twentieth century offer an ample area for the study of the literary aspect of the languages-in-contact phenomenon. Indeed, some investigation has been carried out into the significance of this literature in Africa.' Such has not been the case for Angolan literature. Because of the 1974 Portuguese revolution, Angolan independence, and the publication of the works of a major contemporary Angolan writer, such an evaluation can now be effected. That writer is Jose Luandino Vieira, pseudonym of Jose Vieira Mateus da Graca.