Under the dictations of memory: insilium and impossible return in Jesusalém

Abstract

In the novel Jesusalém, by Mia Couto, character Silvestre Vitalício undertakes a self-insile (Can, 2020) motivated by a deep desire to forget. Assailed by feelings of guilt over his wife's suicide, the search for oblivion, in addition to attempting to erase the traumatic memory, he imposes on his children a forced displacement to the inland, where he builds an imagined homeland, Jesusalém. In this sense, the novel gives rise to several discussions about the displacement conducted in search of this oblivion and the intricacies imposed by Vitalício to nullify the past from his and his children's imagination. However, as Jeanne Marie Gagnebin (2009) postulates, there is feedback between the processes of remembering and forgetting, so that, despite the father's intention, this complete annulment will not be achieved. But, if nurturing a life without memories in isolation was utopic, the need to return to the old home will make memory act in diverse ways on these characters, with the common point being the difficulty of staying and (re)inserting themselves in this space. Given the above, we are interested in investigating the displacement of isolation and the reasons why returning appears impossible for the characters in the narrative. More specifically, we also seek to understand how the drama of this family nucleus is metaphorically stitched together with the drama of the Mozambican nation in face of the civil conflict, especially from the perspective of the returning of purposefully silenced memories.