From Lobo Antunes to Joseph Conrad: The Writing of Post-Colonial Maps and Phantoms

The article delineates some of the intertextual connections between Boa tarde às coisas aqui em baixo by António Lobo Antunes and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and it takes as its point of departure the metaphor of the map, which stands for a critical reflection on the West’s colonial and post-colonial adventure in Africa. Borrowing from David Spurr’s analysis of imperial rhetoric, we further identify that these two works are revealing of how this imperial rhetoric remains present in the discourse and culture of the colonial and post-colonial worlds.