Quem tem medo dos franceses?

Abstract

This essay, meaningfully polemic, equates the ambiguous relationship, both seductive and controversial, which was established, from early days, between Portuguese culture and its French counterpart. To a more dependent attitude, typical of the 19th century, the existence of a common cultural space follows, perhaps European or western, which will translate into analogue structures. The feeling of belonging loses its momentum, i. e., a sense of common needs, instable identities and recurring pasts now rules. And, in both literatures,, we find similar processes of questioning the present through a past in progress.