From the concordance between the old and new: reading tradition in Uma Viagem à Índia (A Voyage to India) by Gonçalo M. Tavares

Abstract

In Uma Viagem à Índia (2010) Gonçalo M. Tavares proposes an exercise in revision and deconstruction of the literary canon. Taking Os Lusíades by Luís de Camões as a model, the novel calls on us to revisit cultural and literary mythology – not only Portuguese, but Western – through a series of imaginary texts. The objective of this article is to present an analysis of Gonçalo M. Tavares' novel, demonstrating how tradition is turned inside out and – thanks to the dialectical interaction the past maintains with the present – to instigate a rereading of the work. I will try to demonstrate that an understanding of Uma Viagem à Índia necessarily depends on the examination of certain interactions that characterize the relationships "between texts". The objective, therefore, is to reflect on the work of transformation and assimilation achieved around the centralising text of Os Lusíades, while also taking into account the five hundred years that separate us from Camões.