Goan literature
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Goan literature is the literature pertaining to the region of Goa, a former Portuguese colony and currently the smallest state in India.
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[edit] Small region
Goa has a population of around 1.4 million and an area of 3,700 sq. kilometres (1,430 sq. miles). For a small region, it has a significant amount of publication activity, possibly in part because of the fact that its people write in a number of languages -- as many as 13, according to one count -- and also because of the large expatriate and diaspora population of Goans settled across the globe.
It was the first place in Asia to have a printing press, which was brought by the Portuguese in 1556; Goa's Portuguese colonial rulers also believed in meticulous record-keeping.
[edit] Early roots
Goa has had a long love affair with the printed word, although growth has been slow, and punctuated by problems like linguistic breaks and censorship.
Goans, with a long history of emigration and foreign-rule, seem to have also adapted, either out of necessity or choice, to writing in languages that had their origins in distant Europe, like Portuguese and English.
[edit] Writing by Goans in other languages
Professor Peter Nazareth points out that that Goans have written in thirteen languages, of which the chief were English, Portuguese, Marathi and Konkani, the last of these, the mother tongue, being written in four to five different scripts. Nazareth is editor of an anthology of Goan writing, professor of English and African-American World Studies and advisor to the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He writes:
- (By saying Goans are cultural brokers, I mean) Goans mediate between cultures, Goans live between different cultures, Goans are travellers from one world to another. This, in my opinion, happened when East and West met in Goans under pressure with the Portuguese conquest. Since that time, our usefulness to the world, wherever we are, is that we can understand different cultures and help people from different cultures understand one another. The disadvantage is that if we don't work on it, we may end up not knowing who we are."
Edward D'Lima, who has done his PhD on the Goan writer Armando Menezes, argues that Goan writing in English goes back to the late nineteenth century, when Goans were migrating out of this Portuguese-controlled colony in favour of jobs in the growing English-speaking British-ruled colonial world. One early example was the writer from the village of Pilerne (in Bardez) named Joseph Furtado.
Goans now read (and write) in different languages. English is probably the most influential. Marathi is another widely-read language. Konkani, the widely-spoken and 'official' language of the region, is studied in schools.
[edit] Goan writers
- R.V. Pandit (poetry)
- Philip Furtado (poetry)
- Mumbai-based Eunice de Souza (poetry)
- Lino Leitao (short stories) used Goan imagery in plenty in his writing from North America.
- Lambert Mascarenhas' book Sorrowing Lies My Land carries traces of the Rammanohar Lohia-led anti-colonial movement launched in Margao in 1946.
- Konkani writer Pundalik Naik's short stories touches traditional themes very important in yesterday's Goa. His book from the 1970s titled 'Achev' (The Upheaval) was translated into English and published from New Delhi earlier this decade. It is a story based in a Goa wrecked by rampant mining.
- Margaret Mascarenhas' Skin moves from a bar in California to life in a Goan village.
- Victor Range Ribeiro's Tivolem has earned praise as a well-written book.
- Vasco Pinho
- Melanie Silgardo (poetry)
- Joao da Veiga Coutinho's "A Kind of Absence: Life in the Shadows of History"
- Maria Aurora Couto's Goa: A Daughter's Story has received wide attention
- Frank Simoes (advertising and journalism)
- Jerry Pinto (poetry)
- Eunice de Souza (poetry)
- Melanie Silgardo (poetry)
- Abhay Sardesai (poetry, translation)
- Damodar Mauzo (fiction)
- Dom Moraes (poetry, belles lettres)
- Sonia Faleiro (Mumbai-based writer of fiction and narrative non-fiction. Her critically acclaimed first novel The Girl, was published by Viking in 2006. See www.soniafaleiro.com for more information.)
[edit] Literature featuring Goan locations or people
- Dr Cleo Odzer's 'Goa Freaks', almost entirely set in Goa
- Alexandre Dumas' well-known The Count of Monte Cristo is believed to feature the Goan figure from history Abbe Faria (whose statue stands alongside the old secretariat in Panjim) as the deranged monk.
- Orlando Costa´s prize winning novels O Signo da Ira (1961) and O Último Olhar de Manú Miranda (2000) published in Portugal.
- José Eduardo Agualusa´s Um Estranho em Goa (2000) published in Portugal.
- Silviano C. Barbosa's The Sixth Night"" (2004), an almost believable true-to-life Goan novel about a low-caste Goan Catholic girl who falls in love with a Portuguese man, starts just before the war of 1961, taking the reader from Goa all the way to Canada. (check the website http://ca.geocities.com/goaraj@rogers.com/)
[edit] Indo-Portuguese, Konkani writing
Besides English, Konkani and Marathi, Goans, particularly those of the past generation, have contributed significantly to writings in Portuguese.
- Adeodato Barreto Civilização Hindu (Hindu Civilization) and O Livro da Vida (The Book of Life)(poetry)
- Francisco Luis Gomes, In the Land of Brahama
- Nacimento Mendonca, Through the Mythical Ayodya
- Fanchu Loyola
- Laximanrao Sardessai (poetry)
- Menezes Braganca (journalism)
- Floriano Pinto
- "Gip" Costa, author of Jacob e Dulce' (Konkani flavour of Goa's spoken Portuguese)
- Alvaro da Costa (journalism)
- Manohar Sardesai (poetry)
- Carmo Azavedo's From the Tip of the Pen (Ao Bico da Pena)
- Amadeo Prazeres da Costa (journalism)
- Fernando de Noronha's Nostalgic Memories of the Past
- Dr Olivinho Gomes, former Goa University vice chancellor
- Dr Carmo D'Souza, Angela's Goan Identity, Portugal In Search of Indentity and other books. In a recent lecture, Dr D'Souza himself traced the indigenous imagery, and the impact of Portuguese on Goan writing.
- Orlando Costa eminent novelist and poet, author of prize winning novels O Signo da Ira (1961) and O Último Olhar de Manú Miranda (2000) and of many other literary works. Died in Portugal in 2006.
[edit] Resources for and about Goan writers
- The Goa Archives
- Fundacao Oriente, Panjim-based Portuguese cultural body, which has helped some writers with small grants of a few thousand rupees.
[edit] Sources
↑ "Goan Literature: A Modern Reader", Journal of South Asian Literature Winter-Spring 1983
↑ Translated in Manohar Shetty's Ferry Crossing
