Grant Hamilton & David Huddart 
A Companion to Mia Couto 

This new research in English on the work of the Mozambican writer Mia Couto provides a comprehensive introduction to the critical terrain of Couto’s literary thought.


Already well-established in the Lusophone world, Mia Couto is increasingly acknowledged as a major voice in World literature. Winner of the Camões Prize for Literature in 2013, the most prestigious literary prize honouring Lusophone writers, he was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2014, and in 2015 was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Yet, despite this high profile there are very few full-length critical studiesin English about his writing.


Mia Couto is known for his imaginative re-working of Portuguese, making it distinctively Mozambican in character. This book brings together some of the key scholars of his work such as Phillip Rothwell, Luís Madureira, and his long-time English translator David Brookshaw. Contributors examine not only his early works, which were written in the context of the 16-year post-independence civil war in Mozambique, but alsothe wide span of Couto’s contemporary writing as a novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. There are contributions on his work in ecology, theatre and journalism, as well as on translation and Mozambican nationalist politics. Most importantly the contributors engage with the significance of Couto’s writing to contemporary discussions of African literature, Lusophone studies and World literature.


Grant Hamilton is Associate Professor of English literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the editor of
Reading Marechera (James Currey, 2013).

David Huddart is Associate Professor of English literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kongand is author of
Involuntary Associations: World Englishes and Postcolonial Studies (Liverpool University Press, 2014]

Table of Content

Introduction – Grant Hamilton and David Huddart

An Interview with Mia Couto [translated from the Portuguese by David Brookshaw] – Grant Hamilton and David Huddart

Mia Couto in Context – David Brookshaw

Uma coisa fraterna: Mia Couto & the Mutumbela Gogo Theatre Group – Luis Madureira

Reading
Raiz de Orvalho: Counterpointing Literary Genres in the Work of Mia Couto – Elena Brugioni

Spaces of Magic: Mia Couto’s Relational Practice – Irene Marques

Mia Couto or the Art of Storytelling – Patrick Chabal

The Multiple Worlds of Mia Couto – Bill Ashcroft

‘Ask Life’: Animism & the Metaphysical Detective – David Huddart

Mia Couto & Translation – Stefan Helgesson

Jesusalém: Empty Fathers & Women’s Texts – Phillip Rothwell

Trauma: Repetition & Pure Repetition in
The Tuner of Silences – Grant Hamilton

Seeing Like a Crocodile Bird: Mia Couto’s
The Last Flight of the Flamingo – Andrew Mahlstedt

Mia Couto & Nostalgia: Reading
The Last Flight of the Flamingo – Emily Chow

Mia Couto, Contexts & Issues: A Bibliographic Essay – Grant Hamilton and David Huddart