Abstract
Maria Velho da Costâs latest novel, Myra (2008), could have been subtitled Une saison en enfer.1 The novel is set in present-day Portugal, in a time of complex and dangerous multi-and intercultural power relations. Capturing the essence of the novel is a series of paintings by Ilda David of a girl and a dog— paintings of haunting and terrible beauty. Rimbaud, the voyant poet, is incarnated in the novel as the dog Rambo (or Rambô), a pitbull raised to fight and kill other dogs for the perverse enjoyment of humans. David’s sublime and tender images suggest another possible subtitle to Myra: In Wonder/Nightmare Land.
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© 2014 Hilary Owen and Anna M. Klobucka
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Santos, M.I.R. (2014). Gender, Species, and Coloniality in Maria Velho da Costa. In: Owen, H., Klobucka, A.M. (eds) Gender, Empire, and Postcolony. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137340993_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137340993_12
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