On ‘Portugueseness’: A Semiotic Approach
Keywords:
Portugueseness, national identity, cultural semioticsAbstract
What is ‘Portugueseness’? From a constructionist and semiotic perspective, in this paper I deal with this contested and fuzzy concept, which although many criticize as a fallacious attempt do describe a sort of reality that does not exist, is however a meaningful concept that many employ in order to guide social action. As I argue based on the work of Geertz and Eco, ‘Portugueseness’ needs to be conceived not referentially, but as a discursive entity that refers to a cultural unit that is distinct from other units that are meaningful when mapping the complex continuum of national identities. After discussing the concept from a theoretical perspective, I focus on three of its main dimensions: its meaning, its uses and its content.
References
Anderson, Benedict (1983): Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
Assmann, Jan (1999): Das kulturelle Gedächtnis. Munich, C. H. Beck.
Berger, Peter & Luckmann, Thomas. (1966): The Social Construction of Reality. London: Penguin.
Bruner, Jerome (1991): The Narrative Construction of Reality. In Critical Inquiry, 18.
Burke, Peter J. & Stets, Jan E. (2009): Identity Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coupland, N. (2007) Style. Language Variation and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cunha, Luís (2006): A identidade da nação: encenação e narrativa. In J. Miranda & M. I. João (org.): Identidades Nacionais em debate. Lisbon: CELTA.
De Sousa, Vítor (2017): O Estado Novo, a cunhagem da palavra ‘portugalidade’ e as tentativas da sua reabilitação na atualidade. In Estudos em Comunicaçao, n. 25, vol. 1, p. 287-312.
– (2014): O equívoco da portugalidade. In M. M. Baptista, J. E. Franco & B. Cieszyńska (org.): Europa das nacionalidades. Imaginários, identidades e metamorfoses políticas. Lisbon: Grácio.
De Sousa, Vítor & de Lemos Martins, Moisés (2013): A ‘portugalidade’ no discurso parlamentar português: Assembleia Nacional (1935-1974) e Assembleia da República (1976-2012). In Z. Pinto-Coelho & J. Fidalgo (Eds.): Comunicação e Cultura: II Jornada de Doutorandos em Ciências da Comunicação e Estudos Culturais. Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade, Universidade do Minho, p. 87-103.
Eco, Umberto (1976): A Theory of Semiotics. Indiana: University of Indiana Press.
– (1964): Apocalittici e integrati. Milan: Bompiani.
Geertz, Clifford (1973): The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Gómez García, Pedro (2012). Las ilusiones de la identidad. Madrid: Cátedra.
Hofstede, G. et al. (2010): Cultures and Organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lorusso, Anna Maria (2010): Semiotica della cultura. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
Miranda, Joana (2006): A nação portuguesa: memória e construção simbólica”. In J. Miranda & M. I. João (org.): Identidades Nacionais em debate. Lisbon: CELTA.
Searle, John. (1995): The Construction of Social Realtity. London: Penguin.
Sobral, José Manuel (2012): Portugal, Portugueses: Uma Identidade Nacional. Lisbon: Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos.
Villaverde Cabral, Manuel (2003): A Identidade Nacional Portuguesa: Conteúdo e Relevância. In. DADOS – Revista de Ciências Sociais. Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 46, nº 3, p. 513-533.
Wendt, Alexander (1999): Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).