We only arrive where we are not expected. A reading of O retorno by Dulce Maria Cardoso

Abstract

This paper intends to read the novel The Return, by Dulce Maria Cardoso, based on the thought of Eduardo Lourenço present in A Nau de Ícaro seguido de Imagem e Miragem da Lusofonia (1999), and O Labirinto da Saudade (1972). In addition to the Portuguese philosopher and essayist, we will resort to notions of liquidity and fragmentation of the subject in constant movement present in Zygmunt Bauman, in order to think about how the identity of Rui, the protagonist of the novel, and Mário, his father, are, by metonymy, not only the reflection of many “retornados”, but also the image of the country struggling with decolonization and with the future.

Reporting on the phenomenon that was the return of more than five hundred thousand people from the former Overseas Provinces, mainly from Angola and Mozambique, Dulce Maria Cardoso gives voice and words to a remarkable episode in recent Portuguese history. The Return is, therefore, a novel about an open wound that demonstrates the arrival of thousands of people in a place that is not waiting for them.