Portuguese man-of-war: see jellyfish; polyp and medusa.

Portuguese literature, writings in Portuguese. The literature of Brazil is considered separately (see Brazilian literature).

Early Works

Literature in the Portuguese language first emerged in lyric poetry, the courtly love poems collected in cancioneiros [song books]. The earliest of these, three in number, are the Cancioneiro da Ajuda, da Vaticana, and Colocci-Brancuti, written in the 13th cent. In the early 20th cent. the scholarly work of Carolina Micaëlis de Vasconcelos on the Cancioneiro da Ajuda opened large vistas into the past of Portuguese literature. The early poems were greatly influenced by the Provençal language and literature, but they had the individual flavor and meter of Portuguese and Galician, then a dialect of Portuguese (see Provençal literature). King Dinis, who ruled Portugal in the late 13th and early 14th cent., was an accomplished poet and, like his father, Alfonso III, followed the Provençal custom of encouraging poetic activity in his court.

Prose writing took longer to develop. Religious and historical writings ultimately led to the romances of chivalry, the progenitor of which, Amadis of Gaul, most likely originated in Portugal. Among the greatest achievements of medieval Portuguese prose are the vivid and well-documented chronicles written by Fernão Lopes (c.1380-c.1460) and Gomes Eanes de Zurara (c.1420-c.1474). Portuguese poetry in the 15th cent. was marked by the influence of Spain, which can be seen in Garcia de Resende's collection, Cancioneiro geral (1516).

The Renaissance through the Seventeenth Century

The impact of the Renaissance in Portugal was particularly strong in poetry and drama. The plays of Gil Vicente, who wrote in both Portuguese and Spanish, are infused with the Renaissance spirit, particularly the ideals of humanism. The Italianate school strongly influenced 16th-century Portuguese poetry. The humanist Francisco de Sá de Miranda introduced new poetic forms upon his return from Italy. He, Diogo Bernardes, and others mastered the new forms of lyric poetry, which reached their highest point in the works of Luis de Camões. Camões, known for his national epic Os Lusídas [the Portuguese] (1572), was also the author of a superb body of lyric poems. Sá de Miranda and his followers also introduced the prose comedy and tragedy into Portugal.

The Renaissance saw a spate of writing by historians who chronicled the discoveries and conquests in Africa, Asia, and America. João de Barros ranks among the best of these. The Portuguese Bernardim Ribeiro's pastoral novel Menina e Moça [the book of the young girl] (1554) was certainly the inspiration in part for the Spanish Jorge de Montemayor's Diana (1559), one of the most important novels in Spanish literature. The leading figures of the 17th cent. were the poet Francisco Rodrigues Lobo (1580-1622) and the prose writer Francisco Manuel de Melo (1608-66), whose writings stand out in a century mainly marked by subservience to Spanish form and style, especially Gongorism.

Literary Movements of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

The 18th cent. developed gradually into the literary revolution that was the romantic movement (see romanticism). Liberal ideas from abroad invaded every branch of letters and learning. João B. de Almeida Garrett, the chief exponent of French-inspired romanticism, exercised great influence over a generation of poets, playwrights, and novelists. Through his historical novels, a history of Portugal, and numerous pamphlets and journalistic endeavors, Alexandre Herculano de Carvalho e Araújo provided substantial support for the romantic, liberal, and anticlerical movements that helped shape Portuguese culture and politics in the 19th cent.

A group of dissident poets, including Antero de Quental, Téofilo Braga, and Abílio Manuel Guerra Junqueiro, revolted against romanticism and laced their works with philosophical and social ideas. José Maria Eça de Queiroz introduced realism into the novel and set the tone for the next half century. Historiography, of a more narrative than scientific sort, flourished at the same time. Joaquim P. de Oliveira Martins was one of the more popular writers of this genre.

The Twentieth Century

The modern period in Portuguese letters dates from the establishment of the republic in 1910. Various writers fostered suadosismo, a cult of nostalgia and regret over an unrecoverable and mythic past. Later writing became more sensitive to developments in other countries. Fernando Pessoa, largely unrecognized during his lifetime, would be acclaimed later as the greatest modern Portuguese poet, and José Régio distinguished himself as a poet and playwright. The novel was cultivated by Aquilino Ribeiro, J. M. Ferreira de Castro, Alves Redol, Fernando Namora, Agustina Bessa Luís, and others.

In the early 1970s Portuguese literary circles were shaken by the publication of a volume of collected notes, stories, letters, and poems by Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta, and Maria Velho da Costa. Banned because of its erotic and feminist nature, the book was allowed to circulate after the collapse of the Salazar dictatorship in Apr., 1974. In the United States the book was published as The Three Marias: New Portuguese Letters (1975).

Reflecting the influence of French literary theory, Portuguese literature since 1974 has often focused on the linguistic and technical aspects of narrative. Important contemporary novelists include José Cardosa-Piresa, Olga Gonçalves, Lídia Jorge, António Lobo Antunes, and José Saramago, who is internationally recognized as one of the great modern writers of fiction (he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998). Important poets include Eugénio de Andrade and António Ramos Rosa.

The late 20th cent. has also seen the rise of Portuguese literature in Africa: in Angola, the poet Agostinho Neto and the novelist Luadino Vieira; in Mozambique, the novelist Luís Bernardo Howana; in Cape Verde, the novelists Manuel Lopes, Orlanda Amarilis, and Manuel Ferreira.

Portuguese language, member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Romance languages). It is the mother tongue of about 170 million people, chiefly in Portugal and the Portuguese islands in the Atlantic (11 million speakers); in Brazil (154 million speakers); and in Portugal's former overseas provinces in Africa and Asia—Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Principe—(about 5 million speakers). (These nations are members of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, which was founded 1996.) Although the Portuguese spoken in Portugal differs to some extent from the Portuguese current in Brazil, with reference to pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, the differences are not major. The Portuguese spelling reform agreed to in 1990 simplifies the spelling of both Brazilian and European/African Portuguese, and greatly reduces the differences in orthography between the two forms. A distinctive phonetic feature of Portuguese is the nasalization of certain vowels and diphthongs, which can be indicated by a tilde (~) placed above the appropriate vowel. The acute (´) and circumflex (ˆ) accents serve to make clear both stress and pronunciation and also to distinguish homonyms (for example, e "and," but é "is"). The grave accent (̀) is a guide to pronunciation. It can also indicate a contraction, as in às, which is a combination of a "to" and as "the" (feminine plural). A c with a cedilla (ç) is pronounced like c in English place when used before the vowels a, o, and u. As in Spanish, there are two forms of the verb "to be": ser, which denotes a comparatively permanent state and which also precedes a predicate noun, and estar, which denotes a comparatively temporary condition. Again like Spanish, Portuguese tends to use reflexive verbs instead of the passive voice. Historically, Portuguese, which developed from the Vulgar Latin (see Latin language) brought to the Iberian Peninsula by its Roman conquerors, could be distinguished from the parent tongue before the 11th cent. The Portuguese spoken in Lisbon and Coimbra gave rise to the Standard Portuguese of today. Although the greater part of the Portuguese vocabulary comes from Latin, a number of words have also been absorbed from Arabic, French, and Italian, and also from some of the indigenous South American and African languages.

Portuguese West Africa: see Angola.

Portuguese India, the former Portuguese possessions on the Indian subcontinent. It comprised Dadra and Nagar Haveli, located inland, and the coastal colonies of Goa and Daman and Diu (with the capital at Panjim)—all of which were annexed by India in 1961.

Portuguese Guinea: see Guinea-Bissau.

Portuguese East Africa: see Mozambique.

Any of various floating, warm-water marine cnidarians (genus Physalia, class Hydrozoa) found worldwide but mostly in the Gulf Stream and the Indian and Pacific oceans. The medusa-form body consists of a translucent, jellylike, gas-filled float, which may be 3–12 in. (9–30 cm) long. Polyps beneath the float bear hanging tentacles up to 165 ft (50 m) long. Nematocysts on some polyps paralyze fish and other prey. Other polyps then attach to, spread over, and digest the victim. A third type of polyp is involved in reproduction. The painful sting of Physalia can cause fever, shock, or disruption of heart and lung function.

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Romance language spoken by about 170 million people in Portugal, Brazil, and other former Portuguese colonies. The first literary works in Portuguese date from the 13th–14th century. Standard Portuguese is based on the dialect of Lisbon. Dialectal variation in Portugal is limited, but the differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese are more extensive, including changes in phonology, verb conjugation, and syntax. The four major dialect groups are Northern (Galician, spoken in northwestern Spain), Central, Southern (including the Lisbon dialect), and Insular (including Brazilian and Madeiran) Portuguese.

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officially Republic of Angola, formerly Portuguese West Africa

Country, southern Africa. Its northernmost section of coastland, the Cabinda exclave, is separated from Angola proper by a narrow corridor of Congo territory. Area: 481,354 sq mi (1,246,700 sq km). Population (2006 est.): 12,127,000. Capital: Luanda. The population is made up of mostly Bantu-speaking peoples; the main ethnic groups are the Ovimbundu and the Mbundu. Languages: Portuguese (official), indigenous languages. Religions: Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic; also Protestant); also traditional beliefs. Currency: kwanza. The country contains several plateau regions, which separate it into three distinct drainage systems. One in the northeast drains into the Congo River basin, and another, in the southeastern sector, drains into the Zambezi system; the remaining drainage, westward into the Atlantic, provides most of Angola's hydroelectric power. About half of the land area is forest; less than 10percnt is arable. With the exception of the development of the country's substantial petroleum reserves, Angola's economy has long been unable to take advantage of its natural resources because of the devastation caused by the protracted civil war. Angola is nominally a republic with one legislative house; its head of state and government is the president. An influx of Bantu-speaking peoples in the 1st millennium AD led to their dominance in the area by circa 1500. The most important Bantu kingdom was Kongo; south of Kongo was the Ndongo kingdom of the Mbundu people. Portuguese explorers arrived in the early 1480s and over time gradually extended their rule. Angola's frontiers were largely determined by other European powers in the 19th century but not without strong resistance by the indigenous peoples. Resistance to colonial rule led to the outbreak of fighting in 1961, which led ultimately to independence in 1975. Rival factions continued fighting after independence. Although a peace accord was reached in 1994, forces led by Jonas M. Savimbi continued to resist government control until his death in 2002. A lasting peace accord was signed shortly thereafter, ending 27 years of civil war.

Angola made its Olympic debut at the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow.

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officially Republic of Guinea-Bissau formerly (until 1974) Portuguese Guinea

Country, western Africa. Its territory includes the Bijagós Archipelago, off the Atlantic coast to the southwest. Area: 13,948 sq mi (36,125 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 1,413,000. Capital: Bissau. The four major ethnic groups are the Balanta Brassa, Fulani, Malinke, and Mandyako. Languages: Portuguese (official), Balante, Fula, Malinke, Mandyako. Religions: traditional beliefs, Islam, Christianity. Currency: CFA franc. Most of the country consists of low, marshy terrain and flat plateau. The climate is generally hot and tropical. Much of the wildlife is aquatic; crocodiles, snakes, and birds such as pelicans and flamingos abound. Guinea-Bissau has a developing, primarily agricultural economy; cashews and peanuts are the main cash crops. It is a multiparty republic with one legislative house; its head of state and government is the president assisted by the prime minister. More than 1,000 years ago the coast of Guinea-Bissau was occupied by agriculturists using iron implements. They grew irrigated and dry rice and were also the major suppliers of marine salt to the western Sudan. At about the same time, the area came under the influence of the Mali empire and became a tributary kingdom known as Gabú. After 1546 Gabú was virtually autonomous; vestiges of it lasted until 1867. The earliest overseas contacts came in the 15th century with the Portuguese, who imported slaves from the Guinea area to the offshore Cape Verde Islands. Portuguese control of Guinea-Bissau was marginal despite their claims to sovereignty there. The end of the slave trade forced the Portuguese inland in search of new profits. Their subjugation of the interior was slow and sometimes violent; it was not effectively achieved until 1915, though sporadic resistance continued until 1936. Guerrilla warfare in the 1960s led to the country's independence in 1974, but political turmoil continued, and the government was overthrown by a military coup in 1980. A new constitution was adopted in 1984, and the first multiparty elections were held in 1994. A destructive civil war in 1998 was followed by a military coup in 1999, but the coup was followed by elections.

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officially Republic of Mozambique formerly Portuguese East Africa

Country, southeast coast of Africa. Area: 308,642 sq mi (799,379 sq km). Population (2006 est.): 19,687,000. Capital: Maputo. The great majority of the people are Bantu-speaking Africans. Ethnolinguistic groups include the Makua, Tsonga, Malawi, Shona, and Yao peoples. Languages: Portuguese (official), Bantu languages, Swahili. Religions: traditional beliefs, Christianity, Islam. Currency: metical. Mozambique may be divided into two broad regions: the lowlands in the south and the highlands in the north, separated by the Zambezi River. It has a centrally planned, developing economy based on agriculture, international trade, and light industry. Some industries were nationalized after 1975. Mozambique is a republic with one legislature; its head of state and government is the president. Inhabited in prehistoric times, it was settled by Bantu peoples circa the 3rd century AD. Arab traders occupied the coastal region from the 14th century, and the Portuguese controlled the area from the early 16th century. The slave trade later became an important part of the economy and, although outlawed in the mid-18th century, continued illegally. In the late 19th century, private trading companies began to administer parts of the inland areas. It became an overseas province of Portugal in 1951. An independence movement became active in the 1960s, and, after years of war, Mozambique was granted independence in 1975. A single-party state under Frelimo (the Mozambique Liberation Front), it was wracked by civil war in the 1970s and '80s. In 1990 a new constitution ended its Marxist collectivism and introduced privatization, a market economy, and multiparty government. A peace treaty was signed with the rebels in 1992, ending the civil war. The country's first multiparty elections were held two years later.

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