O TRIUNFO DO CONTEMPORÂNEO E A CONSOLIDAÇÃO NACIONAL

Abstract

This essay sustains that the decades of the 60’s and 70’s of the last century were those in which two important changes took place in the realm of Portuguese Literary Studies: first, a remarkable turn of critical attention towards contemporary literature (meaning, here, literature written during the 20th century) and, secondly, a highly restraining focus on Portuguese literature, which became more and more object of praise and celebration. It is also stressed the movement that put the essay – and the idea of “Literary Studies” itself – in the place formerly occupied by “Criticism” and, finally, a sketch is drawn of the autonomous history of the polemic discourse around modern poetry.