Plurilinguism and Multiculturalism
The Case of Literatures from Goa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-2096.2025.53126Keywords:
Goa, significant geography, multiculturalism, plurilinguismAbstract
Based on Damodar Mauzo’s (2018) idea of how literature can bring together a culture, the objective of this article is to analyse four short stories in the four main languages of Goa, a former Portuguese colony in India (1510-1961) in terms of the concept of “literary clusters” (Mohanty, 2011), literary narratives in different languages that belong to the same multicultural space or “significant geography” (Orsini, 2015; Laachir et al, 2018), in this case, Goa: “Shiva brincando” (2005) in Portuguese by Maria Elsa da Rocha; “The Crucifix on the Chain” [Gallyantulo khuris] (2015) in Konkani by Prakesh Parienkar; “Says Kabira” [Kahat Kabira] (2018) in Marathi by Vithal L. Gawas, and “Saibinn” (2008) in English by José Lourenço. By bringing together these stories I intend to show that all these Goan authors claim Goa, their “significant geography”, as a place for everyone in spite of cultural, social and religious differences.
Downloads
References
ALDROVANDI, Cibele. Goddess Santeri and the Female Deities in Goa: Reassessing the prePortuguese Sacred Landscape Through the Earliest Forais. Indian Journal of Archaeology, v. 5, n. 2, (2020), p. 1333-1361.
CANAGARAJAH, Suresh; ASHTRAF, H. Multilingualism and Education in South Asia: Resolving Policy/Practice Dilemmas. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, v. 33, 2013, p. 258-285. Disponível em: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/annual-review-of-applied-linguistics/article/abs/multilingualism-and-education-in-south-asia-resolving-policypractice-dilemmas/5AB870671FBBCF2CD133828160C09569. Acesso em: 28 fev. 2025.
CASTRO, Paul Melo; ROCHA, Maria Elsa da. Life Stories: The Collected Stories of Maria Elsa da Rocha. Translated by Paul Melo e Castro. Goa, 1556: Saligão, Goa, India, 2023.
CHANDRAN, Mini. Into Bhasha and English: Comparative Study of Bhasha and English Translation in India. Comparative Literature Studies, v. 53, n. 2, 2016, p. 359-376. Disponível em: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/complitstudies.53.2.0359. Acesso em: 28 fev. 2025.
DEVI, Vimala; SEABRA, Manuel de. A literatura indo-portuguesa. Lisboa: Junta de Investigações de Ultramar, 1971.
FERNANDES, Jason Keith. Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa. New Delhi: Orient Black Swan, 2020.
FERNANDES, Mozinha; DESOUZA, Shaila. Tribal Imprint on Goa’s Cultural Identity: KunbiGawdaization of Goa. Contemporary Voice of Dalit. India: Sage Publications, 2022, pp.1-10.
FERRAO, Vitor. Being a Goan Christian: The Politics of Identity, Rift and Synthesis. Goa: Broadway Publishing House, 2011.
GARMES, Hélder; CASTRO, Paul Melo e. The Story of Goan Literature in Portuguese: A Question of Terminology. In: CASTRO, Paul Melo e (ed.). Colonial and Post-colonial Goan Literature in Portuguese: Woven Palms. University of Wales: Cardiff, 2019. p. 17-40.
GAWAS, Vithal L. Under the Mango Tree: Short Stories from Goa. Panjim: Fundação Oriente, 2018.
HELGESSON, Stefan; MADS ROSENDAHL, Thomsen. Literature and the Word. London & New York: Routledge, 2022.
HENN, Alexander. Encounters in Goa: Religion, Colonialism and Modernity. Bloomington & Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2014.
HENN, Alexander. The Becoming of Goa: Space and Culture in the Emergence of Multicultural Lifeworld. Lusotopie, n. 7, 2000. Lusophonies asiatiques, Asiatiques en lusophonies, 2000. p. 333-339.
LAACHIR, Karima; MARZAGORA, Sara; ORSINI, Francesca. Multilingual Locals and Significant Geographies: For a Ground-up and Located Approach to World Literature. Modern Languages Open, 2018, p. 1-8. Disponível em: https://modernlanguagesopen.org/articles/10.3828/mlo.v0i0.190. Acesso em: 28 fev. 2025.
LOBO, Sandra Ataíde. O reencontro com a indianidade: o nacionalismo goês nos anos 20. In: MATOS, Artur Teodoro de; CUNHA, João Teles e. Goa: passado e presente. Lisboa: Centro de Estudos dos Povos e Culturas de Expressão Portuguesa, 2013. p. 271-279.
LOURENÇO, Jose. Saibinn. Konkan Times Magazine, jan-mar 2008.
MASSEY, Doreen. For Space. Los Angeles, London, Delhi, Singapore, Washington: Sage Publications, 2005.
MIRANDA, Rocky V. The Konkani Language. In: DEVY, G. N. (Ed); SARDESAI, Madhavi; MAUZO, Damodar (orgs). The Languages of Goa: People´s Linguistic Survey of India. v. Eight, Part Two. Hyderabad: Orient Black Swan, 2019. p. 12-50.
MAUZO, Damodar. Inks of Descent. Saligão, Goa: Goa1556 & Goa Heart Emporium, 2019.
MENEZES DE SOUZA, Lynn Mario. Kshetra and the nurturing of a plurilingual ethos: Family plurilingualism and coloniality”. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practicies. v. 4.2, 2023, p. 223-243.
MOHANTY, Satya (ed.). Colonialism, Modernity and Literature: A View from India. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
MUFTI, Aamir R. Forget English! Orientalisms and World Literatures. Harvard University Press, 2016.
NAIK, Jayanti. Contribution of Folktales to the Konkani Language. In: In: DEVY, G. N. (Ed); SARDESAI, Madhavi; MAUZO, Damodar (orgs). The Languages of Goa: People´s Linguistic Survey of India. v. Eight, Part Two. Hyderabad: Orienta Black Swan, 2019. p. 153-164.
NEWMAN, Robert. Goan Anthropology. Mothers: Miracles and Mythology. Saligão, Goa: Goa1556, 2019.
ORSINI, Francesca. The Multilingual Local in World Literature. Comparative Literature, v. 67, n. 4, 2015, p. 345-374, University of Oregon.
ORSINI, Francesca; ZECCHINI, Laetitia. The Locations of (World)Literature: Perspectives from Africa and South Asia. Journal of World Literature, v. 4, n. 1, 2019, p. 1-12.
PARIENKAR, Prakesh. The Crucifix on the Cross. Muse India, Issue 63, 2015.
PASSOS, Joana. Literatura goesa em português nos séculos XIX e XX. Lisboa: Humus, 2012.
PEREIRA, Claudia. Casta, tribo e conversão: os Gauddes de Goa. Tese (Doutorado em Antropologia) – Departamento de Antropologia, Universidade de Lisboa, ISCTE-IUL, outubro, 2009.
PEREZ, Rosa Maria. The Tulsi and the Cross. Delhi: Orient Black Swan, 2011.
ROCHA, Maria Elsa. Shiva at Play. Life Stories by Maria Elsa da Rocha. Translated by Paul Melo e Castro. Saligão, Goa: Goa1556, 2022. p. 123-132.
TIMOCKO, Maria. Post-colonial Writing and Literary Translation. In: BASSNETT, Susan; TRIVEDI, Harish (orgs). Post-Colonial Translation: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge, 2019. p. 19-40.
TRICHUR, Raghuraman S. Refiguring Goa: From Trading Post to Tourist Destination. Saligão, Goa: Goa1556, 2013.
WILLIAMS, Claire. Vivências Partilhadas: Finding Common Ground in the Stories of Three Goan Women Writers. Journal of Romance Studies, v. 19, n. 3, Winter 2019, p. 325-341.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Cielo Festino (Autor)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International 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 Non-Commercial No Derivatives 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).
How to Cite
