Abstract
War necessarily involves encounters and experiences that can be expressed as voices that may haunt some of the individuals involved in such a traumatic event. These voices are usually generated from a combination of facts and fiction, leading to an expression of the mood and the tone of the individuals involved. This is illustrated in the work of Ronnie Quinn, an Argentine writer of Irish descent, and António Lobo Antunes, a Portuguese novelist. These writers present facts and fiction in combination as a means through which they can give voice and generate their discourses. Such discourses allow those who have lived through the Malvinas/Falklands War or the Colonial War to confront a past situation in such a way as to create a firm bond between those involved in that war and the voice(s) of the characters they use to explore the diverse consequences of these conflicts. Furthermore, these writers turn to historical facts as a source for a critical corrosive fiction. A plurality of voices is portrayed and mirrored by a historical memory in spaces where ther is no much rookm left for them, such as Buenos Aires and Lisbon. This essay looks into the issues of homecoming, voice and war, and analyses both important events in the history of the Irish diaspora, in the case of Quinn, and the histories of the Portuguese that returned to mainland Portugal, in the case of Lobo Antunes: both authors conjure a highly charged atmosphere voiced in the narrative present.
Translations are by the author of this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
A. Lobo Antunes, Fado alexandrino (Lisbon: Dom Quixote, 1983); and Ronnie Quinn, El raro privilegio (Buenos Aires, Dunquen, 2012).
- 2.
Unlike other European nations after the post World War II period (1945–1962), Portugal had still not granted independence to its colonies (Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea, Macau, Mozambique, Santo Tomé and Principe). The Portuguese Colonial War or War of Liberation (1961–1974) was fought between the nationalist movement in Portugal’s African colonies and mainland Portugal.
- 3.
For many years, Argentina and the United Kingdom have argued over the Falkland Islands or Malvinas. In April 1982 Argentina took over these islands. The war between these two countries ended in June 1982.
- 4.
Maria Alzira Seixo, ‘Still Facts and Living Factions: The Literary Work of António Lobo Antunes, an Introduction’, Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 19/20 (2011): 19–43.
- 5.
This translates as ‘the Turkish man’. In American Spanish, even though Turks are not Arabs, this term is used to describe people of any Arabian or geographically close background.
- 6.
Susan Bassnett, ‘Reflections on Comparative Literature in the Twenty-First Century’, Comparative Critical Studies 3, no. 1–2 (June 2006): 9.
- 7.
Boaventura de Sousa Santos, ‘Portugal: Tales of Being and Not Being’, Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 19/20 (2011): 407.
- 8.
Between 1926 and 1974 a corporatist authoritarian regime ruled Portugal, which from 1933 was known as Estado Novo. Led by Professor António de Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970), this dictatorship was opposed to communism, socialism, liberalism and anti-colonialism, and sought to retain the Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia. The 1974 Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the Estado Novo, brought this regime to an end. The new Portuguese regime withdrew from East Timor and the African colonies.
- 9.
In Argentina in March 1976 the so-called Proceso de Reorganización Nacional or National Reorganization Process, a military dictatorship, seized power, pursuing a ‘Dirty War’ against any opposition. After losing the Falkland/Malvinas War, the Junta faced public opposition and handed over power in 1983.
- 10.
Eduardo Lourenço, ‘Portugal and Its Destiny’, trans. Kenneth Krabbenhoft, in Chaos and Splendor, and Other Essays, ed. Carlos Veloso (Dartmouth: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 2002), 156.
- 11.
‘I was sick of listening to the same reactions over and over again. For the majority, what happened to us was an anecdote. They spoke about it as if it were a World Cup football match’ (Ronnie Quinn, El raro privilegio, 3).
- 12.
S. Bassnett ‘Reflections on Comparative Literature in the Twenty-First Century’. Comparative Critical Studies 3/1–2 (2003): 9.
- 13.
Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, ‘Empire, Colonial Wars and Post-Colonialism’, Portuguese Studies 18 (2002): 187.
- 14.
Ibid., 186.
- 15.
‘Since we returned’ (Ronnie Quinn, El raro privilegio, 23).
- 16.
Felipe Cammaert, ‘“You Don’t Invent Anything”: Memory and the Patterns of Fiction’, Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 19/20 (2011). 272.
- 17.
Felipe Cammaert, ‘“You Don’t Invent Anything”’, 275.
- 18.
Mª Luisa Blanco, Conversaciones con António Lobo Antunes (Barcelona: Debolsillo, 2005), 49.
- 19.
‘When everything was over, we came back to our ordinary lives and we were responsible for the defeat’ (Ronnie Quinn, ‘Ronnie Quinn y el “raro privilegio” de combatir en Malvinas,’ http://jujuyalmomento.com/?ronnie-quinn-y-el-raro-privilegio-de-combatir-en-malvinas&page=ampliada&id=17475. Accessed 3 April 2013).
- 20.
As mentioned earlier, in the narrative of crime stories which include a murder investigation a corpse functions as the element that rips open the lives of the living and the dead, bringing up questions in the search for an answer, going beyond the actual ‘whodunit’ crime mystery.
- 21.
‘Does it annoy you me asking you about the Malvinas?’ (Ronnie Quinn, El raro privilegio, 3).
- 22.
P. D. James, Talking about Detective Fiction (Oxford: Faber and Faber, 2009), 126.
- 23.
Maria Alzira Seixo, ‘Still Facts and Living Factions’, 30.
- 24.
P. D. James, Talking about Detective Fiction, 126.
- 25.
V. P. Costa, ‘A Perda do Caminho para Casa em Fado alexandrino de António Lobo Antunes.’ Unpublished M. A. Thesis. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. http://www.letras.ufrj.br/posverna/mestrado/CostaVP.pdf. Accessed 28 June 2014, 31.
- 26.
Kathryn Bishop-Sanchez, ‘Post-Imperial Performativies: Sexual Misencounters and Engendering of Desire in António Lobo Antunes’s Fado Alexandrino’, Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 19/20 (2011): 102–03.
- 27.
‘What are we doing with the corpse? … in three hours … the stink in here will be unbearable’ (A. Lobo Antunes, Fado alexandrino, 519).
- 28.
‘I do not know that house. I do not know those smells, those flavours, those voices. I do not know these women, these men. I do not know these night dogs in the street, the noises, the morning …’ (ibid., 436).
- 29.
‘It was long since we had returned. We were living in a democracy, few remembered the Malvinas, it was rather about forgetting the islands, hiding the war and us. Overall, little was spoken and nothing was said about the topic [Falklands/Malvinas War]’ (Ronnie Quinn, El raro privilegio, 39).
- 30.
Maria Alzira Seixo, ‘Still Facts and Living Factions’, 20.
- 31.
‘We were at war with England? … At that moment my head was going round non-stop. I had studied in an English school, my mother was an Anglican. On my father’s side, we were descended from Irish Catholics. They had been fighting the English for centuries. There are huge differences between the Irish and the English. For most Argentines these are impossible to distinguish. Nobody cares and that is logical. That is normal; it is difficult to distinguish an Armenian from a Turk or a Jew from a Russian. Most people don’t even know that they are different islands. U2 were a big help in differentiating the two even if music in English was always seen as English’ (Ronnie Quinn, El raro privilegio, 16)
- 32.
‘Speaking English was my only asset. What were the chances of starting a war with an English-speaking country?’ (ibid., 11).
- 33.
Falkland Islanders, also known as Falklanders, are nicknamed ‘Kelpers’. In the novel, Ronnie Quinn refers to them as ‘Kelpers’.
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
They were checking the leaflets. I was doing push-ups. When they got tired of not understanding, they called me to translate.Verse
Verse - Made in the United Kingdom— I translated. - Ok, Don’t you see it’s not English? Stupid!- said the Corporal. The General was about to beat him. … and I heard: - Apple, apple, banana, chicken … - What is he saying? - Apple, apple, banana, chicken– I quickly translated. - What does it mean? - I do not know. - Soldier, do you speak English or not? (Ibid.)
- 36.
‘He warned me that now we were friends’ (ibid., 6).
- 37.
‘No one was interested in remembering the suffering of those that went to Angola [to war]’ (Mª Luisa Blanco, Conversaciones con António Lobo Antunes, 49).
- 38.
See endnote 27.
Bibliography
Antunes, A. Lobo. 1983. Fado alexandrino. Lisbon: Dom Quixote.
Bassnett, Susan. 2006. Reflections on Comparative Literature in the Twenty-First Century. Comparative Critical Studies 3 (1–2): 3–11.
Bishop-Sanchez, Kathryn. 2011. Post-Imperial Performativies: Sexual Misencounters and Engendering of Desire in António Lobo Antunes’s Fado Alexandrino. Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 19/20: 97–119.
Blanco, Mª. Luisa. 2005. Conversaciones con António Lobo Antunes. Barcelona: Debolsillo.
Cammaert, Felipe. 2011. ‘You Don’t Invent Anything’: Memory and the Patterns of Fiction. Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 19/20: 267–289.
Costa, V.P. A Perda do Caminho para Casa em Fado alexandrino de António Lobo Antunes. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. http://www.letras.ufrj.br/posverna/mestrado/CostaVP.pdf. Accessed 28 June 2014.
James, P.D. 2009. Talking about Detective Fiction. Oxford: Faber and Faber.
Lourenço, Eduardo. 2002. Portugal and Its Destiny. In Chaos and Splendor, and Other Essays, ed. Carlos Veloso and trans. Kenneth Krabbenhoft. Dartmouth: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Quinn, Ronnie. 2012. El raro privilegio. Buenos Aires: Dunquen.
Quinn, Ronnie. Ronnie Quinn y el ‘raro privilegio’ de combatir en Malvinas. http://jujuyalmomento.com/?ronnie-quinn-y-el-raro-privilegio-de-combatir-en-malvinas&page=ampliada&id=17475. Accessed 3 April 2013.
Ribeiro, Margarida Calafate. 2002. Empire, Colonial Wars and Post-Colonialism. Portuguese Studies 18: 132–214.
Seixo, Maria Alzira. 2011. Still Facts and Living Factions: The Literary Work of António Lobo Antunes, an Introduction. Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 19/20: 19–43.
Sousa Santos, Boaventura de. 2011. Portugal: Tales of Being and Not Being. Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 19/20: 399–443.
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de Zubía Fernández, D. (2018). Voices from War, a Privileged Fado. In: Villanueva Romero, D., Amador-Moreno, C., Sánchez García, M. (eds) Voice and Discourse in the Irish Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66029-5_9
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