Sidónio Muralha:

autobiographical memories of a “dragged man”.

Abstract

Based on literary writings, the article discusses the autobiographical memories of the Portuguese immigrant and writer Sidónio Muralha (born in 1920) who, due to his political standing - against the Salazar dictatorship – left his homeland in 1943. The experiences he went through, living as an immigrant, first in Africa and later in Brazil, where he established himself from 1962, lent new contours to the trajectory of this writer, whose literary career had started in Portugal with the publishing of two collections of poems (O Beco (The Cul-de-sac) and Passagem de Nível (Level Passage)) in the early years of the 1940s. In addition to his resistance poems, stories and other writings – such as the novel “Homem Arrastado” (The Dragged Man) and the book on life experiences entitled “A caminhada” (The walk)  - Sidónio has also devoted himself to children literature, on which style he has been awarded many national and international prizes. Thus, his literary writings, produced along four decades, not only show, clearly, his political standing in defense of human rights and against authoritarism, but represent, above all, a privileged source to reflect historically about the experiences of immigration and exile.