O regresso de D. Sebastião : narrativa e mito na ficção portuguesa contemporânea

Abstract

The deep political and socio-cultural changes which were brought about by 25th April, with the end of the colonial empire and the consequent European redimensioning of Portugal, have led our fiction to question the concepts of fatherland and national identity, making Portugal into a favoured - if not obsessional - theme. A large number of modern novels visit the mythical past and future, sometimes by revisiting founding myths such as Sebastianism. In this article two novels (Agustina Bessa Luis' O Mosteiro and Almeida Faria's O Conquistador) are analysed; from this perspective they enter into a dialogue with the myth of Sebastianism.