Between Prospero and Caliban: colonialism, postcolonialism and interidentity: Translated from the Portuguese by Silvia AMORIM

Abstract

If modern western identity comes largely from colonialism, in Portuguese speaking time-space it reflects the particularities of Portuguese colonialism. It is a subaltern colonialism, “colonized” in its semi-peripheral condition, and not wholly understandable to post-colonial thought of central countries, which is based on hegemonic colonialism. This essay proposes the concept of interidentity to picture such complex identity construction, in which features of the colonizer and of the colonized are combined. The lack and the nostalgia of hegemony have led up to the formation of internal colonialisms that resist up to day. Therefore, the author concludes that Portuguese post-colonialism, in face of neo-liberal globalization, should manifest itself as anticolonialism and as counter-hegemonic globalism.