Where is our South? Locating New Imaginative Geographies in Creative Alliances between Musicians from Portugal and the Arab World
Abstract
Reflections on Portuguese orientalism have traditionally focused on the ways past historiographies of an academic penchant conveyed representations of “Arabs” and of their presence in explanatory theses about the Portuguese nation. This article focuses on how these kinds of statements form discursive archives which are handled within processes of subjective identification and acquire meaning in products and creative processes of expressive culture. Focusing on a musical collaboration between a Portuguese and a Lebanese musician, this seeks to understand how particular “imaginative geographies” emerging through sound, poetry and expressive practices dialogue with the current European economic and political context, in particular, the Portuguese.
Key Words: Ricardo Ribeiro; Rabih Abou-Khalil; cross-cultural empathy; vernacular orientalism; expressive culture
Resumen
La reflexión sobre un orientalismo portugués ha incidido especialmente sobre la forma en que la producción historiográfica de perfil académico vehiculó, en el pasado, representaciones de los “árabes” y de su presencia en las tesis explicativas de la nación. Este artículo plantea una reflexión sobre el modo en que este tipo de enunciados constituyen aún hoy archivos discursivos que son manoseados en procesos de identificación subjetiva y que adquieren sentido en productos de la cultura expresiva. Colocando el foco de análisis en la colaboración entre un músico portugués y otro libanés, intento comprender cómo ciertas “geografías imaginativas” producidas a través del sonido, la poesía y las prácticas expresivas entran en diálogo con el actual contexto económico y político europeo y, en particular, con el portugués.
Palabras clave: Ricardo Ribeiro; Rabih Abou-Khalil; empatía cros-cultural, orientalismo popular; cultura expresiva.
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