Authors don’t understand and that’s why they created the European Union of Portuguese-Speaking Writers. UEELP argues that one of the answers lies in Literature. Maria José Chotil, president of the newly created association in Paris, stresses that it is necessary to break the English and French hegemony, and recalls that there is a strong argument for the Portuguese language to prevail: the more than 290 million speakers of the language
Europe is the battleground for now. But other horizons are not excluded, including Macau, which is also part of the Lusophony that the European Union of Portuguese-Speaking Writers (UEELP) has as a priority. In this case, the one expressed through literature.
“We want to promote Portuguese-speaking literature in Europe. According to statistics, we are more than 290 million speakers in the world. Certainly, English is spoken by about 1.3 billion people, but if we highlight the translations here in France, for example, the number of texts in Portuguese is insignificant in relation to the translations of English-language literature.” , underlines the UEELP president.
The Portuguese language is among the five most spoken mother tongues in the world and the five most used on the internet. It is spoken by more than 290 million, according to the World Bank on the population of the Member States that make up the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP): Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Timor -East, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Maria José Chotil, who lives in Paris, emphasizes that in general the market is dominated by large publishers from English-speaking countries and important companies. “Including listed on the stock exchange and with profit strategies. English-language literature has multinational companies with global strategies and Portuguese-language publishers do not have the same importance in the market”, says the writer.
She illustrates with the case of Companhia das Letras, one of the largest Brazilian publishing groups, bought by the North American Penguin Random House. “This has an influence when publishing. They will be more concerned with publishing works that have done well in other countries,” she warns.
To counterbalance, he emphasizes, it takes a lot of work, communication strategies and investment by entities that must defend the Portuguese language. One of her suggestions is more government-funded translation funding programs.
“And more important than the existing ones”, she criticizes.
“Brazil has the Program to Support Translation and Publication of Brazilian Authors Abroad. In August, it had contemplated 17 translation projects in its first selection of the year 2022 for the whole world. It’s too little,” she laments. There is one more example that he believes proves negligence. “In recent years, Brazil has not been present at the Paris Book Fair”, she emphasizes.
“The unions and associations linked to the book can also have a more consistent participation in this effort to spread our literature”. Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Brazil, Portugal, Equatorial Guinea, East Timor and Macau. There are several countries and regions that make up this idea of symbolic territory that is based on a shared language and history. But the union continues to fall short in terms of results, argues Chotil. The writer and journalist emphasizes that it takes a lot of work and vision to face structured markets such as English and French.
“Perhaps institutions in Lusophone countries have not yet realized what they can do to show what Lusophone literature can offer”, highlights the author of “Kaowá e Terena”, “Mon enfance dans le Mato Grosso” and “Ouvrières chez Bidermann”, among other works.
“These countries need to think that they should invest in the communication of this literature because they can have significant economic returns in terms of tourism, payment of copyrights and export of local products”
MACAU OUTSIDE, BUT FOR THE TIME
The union, founded by a group of Lusophone writers who live outside their countries of origin, wants to fight difficulties and give maximum visibility to Lusophone literary works. The idea is to create synergies between the various agents in the literary world. The person in charge guarantees that everyone will be involved: writers, translators, libraries, publishers, booksellers, journalists and teachers.
“We think that this is a collective work, that these agents often need to work together. It is necessary to establish connections”, he emphasizes.
One of the fronts that she considers necessary is the support to editors in the translation and distribution of works in order to place them on the market; have bookstores feature publications in Portuguese; and the organization of more literary meetings with the presence of authors.
“That is, that the entire chain be sustained and work together”, she stresses.
Public events will be a priority.
The literary party scheduled for December 10, in the French capital, will be the first. “The aim is, therefore, to show the public and the various non-Lusophone cultural agents the richness of a pluricontinental language and the diversity of its literatures, which occupy real and imaginary spaces, from the Amazon to the Timor Sea, from the Namibe Desert to the streets of Lisbon”, can be read in the statement that presents the Union.
Macau is left out for now, although it is not ruled out in the medium and long term. “For now, we will work here in Europe, where we will structure ourselves first. But nothing prevents us from working with Portuguese-speaking partners from all over the world afterwards”, emphasizes Chotil.
Even because, he emphasizes, there is a country that cannot be ignored: China.
“I have no doubt that considering the population, the possibilities must be important and must not be neglected”, he stresses.
“We have a Saramago Nobel Prize in Literature who drew attention to our productions. Fernando Pessoa continues to be remembered around the world and the Mozambican Mia Couto has shown her work in important parts of the world. We have authors who managed to cross seas and reach other continents”, she recalls.
“And that, I reinforce, is what the Union wants to do with other and more names in Portuguese-speaking literature”.
