Beyond the nation: a journey through the poetic imaginaries of Eduardo White

Abstract

Eduardo White, a Mozambican poet who started publishing in the post-independence period, redefined the Mozambican cultural imaginary through the Indian Ocean route since his first work, Amar sobre o Índico (1984). In this pa per, we intend to analyze some aspects of White’s poetics, giving special attention to the sea and water and their relationship with the semantics of erotism and love. We intend to demonstrate that the aquatic and insular imageries expand the cul tural and identity space beyond the borders of the nation, sailing towards the In dian Ocean. Thus, the author defines a path of searching for origins through an itinerary that, passing through the Island of Mozambique and the East, will take him to the “hundred horizons of the Indian Ocean” (Bose 2006).