From Insula to Insularity: The Spaces of “Azoreanness”

Abstract

Taking as a starting point the Nemesian notion of «Azoreanness», which is synonymous with worldview, as well as with the representation of insularity, subject to both real or geographic, and inner or mythical characterisation, we will dwell upon the comparatist exegesis between Contrabando Original, a novel by José Martins Garcia, and the «spiral novella» Passageiro em Trânsito, by Cristóvão de Aguiar. If the first can be seen as a reverse Bildungsroman, a novel ravaged by satire as a vehicle of parody, sarcasm and irony, the second appears as a metafictional narrative, a novella drenched with humour verging on the comic, by means of adjunction, substitution, permutation and suppression.
From a thematic perspective, it compells some emphasis on the urge for evasion from a concentric, primeval island, toward an eccentric New World, keeping in mind the proteiform nature of this voyage. Will it be possible, though, to abandon the Insula without falling under its power?