Ah! Well that's embarrassing. Capitães de Abril of course. I better remember this for my Contemporary History of Portugal exam in January!
Indeed I am currently taking some classes for a small degree in Portuguese. I got interested in Portuguese language and culture by coincidence. My main studies are in Spanish, but when I started university I found out I had to choose a "minor". The choices were History, English or Portuguese. Portuguese worked best with my schedule (it meant I could have Fridays off), so I chose Portuguese.
Then I found out I really like it. I had lots of Portuguese friends growing up, but despite spending much time with them I never learned anything about their culture (except a few portuguese swear words). I subconsciously always regarded my own culture as superior - after all, Portuguese people held menial jobs and flunked out of school, while Luxembourgians were bankers and teachers and went on to the best high schools.
Then I got to university and discovered that in fact, the exact opposite was true. Portugal had a culture that was infinitely richer and older than my own. Portuguese seamen had discovered the world, their poets and authors had won Nobel prizes and were world renowned. Portugal's national history dates back to the 12th century - Luxembourg has been a nation since 1839. Suddenly, I also started seeing the beauty in the portuguese language, their songs, and portuguese traditional food; all of which had seemed somehow "lesser" to me until then, compared to my culture's.
So this was an interesting experience for me, discovering how your surroundings and the socioeconomical situation in which you grow up influences your thinking and your perception of the people around you. Here I was, thinking of myself as an open-minded, cultured and tolerant person, and finding out that subconsciously I had the same prejudices and stereotypes as the people I claimed to despise.
But I know that portuguese emigration, or emigration in general, can have the opposite effect on people. Some of my friends for example got much more involved in the family life of their portuguese friends, and they would even take them to Portugal in the summer. Or my Italian teacher at school told us, the day he started to be interested in Italian culture was when his little immigrant friends from elementary school took him home to their family and made him taste peccorino.
So I was a bit of a "late bloomer" - but, better late then never! I got interested in José Saramago when I heard the story of "The Elephant's Journey". Since I had studied that particular period of portuguese history, I was excited to read a novel set in that time. Saramago is actually very well-represented in French bookstores, you will almost always find his novels in bookstores (French publisher "Points" has published his entire work in a nice paperback collection). Since then I have read "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ", "History of the Siege of Lisbon" (another fictionalization of a historic event), "Cain" and "Blindness". Ideologically, I can identify very closely with Saramago. But I got a bit saturated of his style - basically if you've read one book of Saramago, you've read them all. So I have put him aside a little bit but will likely take it up again sometime in the future.
Coming back to the topic at hand - have you seen the movie "Enemy" with Jake Gyllenhall, based on his novel "O Homem Duplicado" ("The Double")? I have not, I'll have to see if it is at the local library. I heard they also made a movie version of "Blindness" - that is one movie I do not have to see, though I am slightly curious to find out how they did it.
Concerning Capitães de Abril, it also has the actor who plays the dad in "La Cage Dorée" in it. My teacher (an Instituto Camõens scholar) recomended it as part of our Contemporary History class. According to her, it is very accurate and based on a great deal of documentation.
Indeed I am currently taking some classes for a small degree in Portuguese. I got interested in Portuguese language and culture by coincidence. My main studies are in Spanish, but when I started university I found out I had to choose a "minor". The choices were History, English or Portuguese. Portuguese worked best with my schedule (it meant I could have Fridays off), so I chose Portuguese.
Then I found out I really like it. I had lots of Portuguese friends growing up, but despite spending much time with them I never learned anything about their culture (except a few portuguese swear words). I subconsciously always regarded my own culture as superior - after all, Portuguese people held menial jobs and flunked out of school, while Luxembourgians were bankers and teachers and went on to the best high schools.
Then I got to university and discovered that in fact, the exact opposite was true. Portugal had a culture that was infinitely richer and older than my own. Portuguese seamen had discovered the world, their poets and authors had won Nobel prizes and were world renowned. Portugal's national history dates back to the 12th century - Luxembourg has been a nation since 1839. Suddenly, I also started seeing the beauty in the portuguese language, their songs, and portuguese traditional food; all of which had seemed somehow "lesser" to me until then, compared to my culture's.
So this was an interesting experience for me, discovering how your surroundings and the socioeconomical situation in which you grow up influences your thinking and your perception of the people around you. Here I was, thinking of myself as an open-minded, cultured and tolerant person, and finding out that subconsciously I had the same prejudices and stereotypes as the people I claimed to despise.
But I know that portuguese emigration, or emigration in general, can have the opposite effect on people. Some of my friends for example got much more involved in the family life of their portuguese friends, and they would even take them to Portugal in the summer. Or my Italian teacher at school told us, the day he started to be interested in Italian culture was when his little immigrant friends from elementary school took him home to their family and made him taste peccorino.
So I was a bit of a "late bloomer" - but, better late then never! I got interested in José Saramago when I heard the story of "The Elephant's Journey". Since I had studied that particular period of portuguese history, I was excited to read a novel set in that time. Saramago is actually very well-represented in French bookstores, you will almost always find his novels in bookstores (French publisher "Points" has published his entire work in a nice paperback collection). Since then I have read "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ", "History of the Siege of Lisbon" (another fictionalization of a historic event), "Cain" and "Blindness". Ideologically, I can identify very closely with Saramago. But I got a bit saturated of his style - basically if you've read one book of Saramago, you've read them all. So I have put him aside a little bit but will likely take it up again sometime in the future.
Coming back to the topic at hand - have you seen the movie "Enemy" with Jake Gyllenhall, based on his novel "O Homem Duplicado" ("The Double")? I have not, I'll have to see if it is at the local library. I heard they also made a movie version of "Blindness" - that is one movie I do not have to see, though I am slightly curious to find out how they did it.
Concerning Capitães de Abril, it also has the actor who plays the dad in "La Cage Dorée" in it. My teacher (an Instituto Camõens scholar) recomended it as part of our Contemporary History class. According to her, it is very accurate and based on a great deal of documentation.
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