| Summary: | <p>In this thesis, I examine the question of authorship in late-colonial and post-independence Mozambique through the case of the eccentric figure of Portuguese artist and writer António Quadros (1933-1984), who wrote and published most of his works in Mozambique. The study draws on archival research, interviews with associates and colleagues of Quadros, close textual analysis and postcolonial and critical theory. It is the first substantial study on the problematic of authorship in Mozambique and on the understudied writer António Quadros.</p>
<p>In the thesis, I consider how Quadros’s work can nuance discussions of authorship in Mozambique and more generally. I explore the question of authorship through the themes of identity, canonicity, representation and readership. I consider the relationship between politics and literature in the contexts of colonial and post-independence Mozambique, with attention paid to the continuities and disjunctions between the role of the author in these distinct historical moments. I focus on the political function of authors in such politicized contexts and I frame the author as a paradoxical figure who is inherently political — given the absence of a free press and, in the colonial period, the context of censorship — but whose works can have only a limited political impact in a context of high illiteracy and a lack of publishing infrastructure. The works of Quadros stands as a counterpoint and complement to the works of his contemporaries.</p>
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