Saying/not saying: why is Domingos Xavier’s life true?

Abstract

Starting with a dichotomy already proposed for the study of Jose Luandino Vieira's work, this essay is an analysis of The True Life of Domingos Xavier through another dichotomy, that of "telling/not-telling". Starting with the ambiguity of the very title of the novella, whose adjective presupposes its opposite, the essay wants to lay bare the way the characters in the "musseque". learning that Domingos died without denouncing them (not-telling ). make him an Angolan mythical hero (telling). The essay tries to show how Luandino Vieira. redimensioning and/or restructuring these elements, creates his own literature.