Goan literature


Goan literature is the literature pertaining to the state of Goa in India.
Goa has a population of around 1.4 million and an area of 3,700 sq. kilometres. For a small region, it has a significant amount of publication activity, possibly in part because its people write in a number of languages—perhaps as many as 13—and also because of the large expatriate and diaspora population of Goans settled across the globe.
Among its most noted writers are Laxmanrao Sardessai and R. V. Pandit, both of whom wrote poetry and prose in Marathi, Konkani, and Portuguese; Shenoi Goembab, whose Konkani writing helped to establish Konkani as a modern literary language; Ravindra Kelekar, who wrote some of the twentieth century's foremost Konkani literature; and Pundalik Naik, whose 1977 novel Acchev was the first Konkani novel to be translated into English.

History

Goa was the first place in Asia to have a printing press, which was brought by the Jesuits in 1556. Nearly all of Goan literature before that time is known to have been destroyed by the Portuguese during the imposition of Inquisition. Goa's Portuguese colonial rulers can hardly be credited with meticulous record-keeping of Goan literature. Thus, Goa has had a long love affair with the written and printed word, although growth has been slow, and punctuated by problems like linguistic breaks and censorship.
Peter Nazareth points out that Goans have written in thirteen languages, of which the chief are Konkani, Marathi, English and Portuguese. Nazareth describes Goans as 'cultural brokers':
Goans mediate between cultures, Goans live between different cultures, Goans are travellers from one part of the world to another. This, in my opinion, happened when East and West met in Goans under pressure with the Portuguese conquest. Since that time, our usefulness to the world, wherever we are, is that we can understand different cultures and help people from different cultures understand one another. The disadvantage is that if we don't work on it, we may end up not knowing who we are.

Literary writing in Goa began to take shape under Portuguese rule and influence, associated with Portugal's mid-nineteenth-century Regeneration, which saw the reintroduction of the press to Goa, along with expanded Portuguese education. A spate of Portuguese-language publications, 'such as A Biblioteca de Goa, O Enciclopédico, O Compilador, O Gabinete Literário das Fontainhas, A revista Ilustrativa and O Arquivo Portugués Oriental ', along with Júlio Gonçalves's Ilustraçao Goana, while often short-lived, provided new fora not only for the circulation of European literature, but provided growing opportunities for Goans to publish literary and scholarly writing.
The first novel published by a Goan was Os Brahamanes by Francisco Luis Gomes, published in 1866.
Later in the nineteenth century, vernacular writing began to emerge in strength, for example in Konkani, the widely spoken local vernacular. The Goan writer Shenoi Goembab was foundational to developing modern Konkani literature. An official language of the region since 1987, Konkani is now studied in schools. Konkani literature emerged alongside the rapid growth of Marathi literature, in which the Goan R. V. Pandit was a notable exponent. S. M. Tadkodkar, who was conferred Ph.D. degree by Goa University for his exhaustive research work on Anant Kaakaba Priolkar, contends that while the Kannadd language of Karnataka province was dominating the Goan culture, Marathi language and culture was embraced by Goans. Now, Marathi has embraced the Goans and would not leave them, willingly. Maximum literature is published in Marathi. There are 8 Marathi dailies published from Goa. Prominent among them are Dianik Gomantak, Tarun Bharat, Lokamat, Navaprabha, Pudhari, Goadoot, Sanatan Prabhat. The Marathi daily Lokmat has the highest circulation among all dailies.
In the late nineteenth century, extensive contacts with and migration to British-ruled India also encouraged English-language Goan writing, with early exponents including Joseph Furtado. Edward D'Lima, who has done his PhD on the Goan writer Armando Menezes, argues that Goan writing in English goes back to the late nineteenth century, when Goans were migrating out of this Portuguese-controlled colony in favour of jobs in the growing English-speaking British-ruled colonial world. English is probably the most influential literary language in Goa: 'a surge of creativity has erupted in Goan literature in English since 2000 in fiction and nonfiction, drama and poetry'.

Goan writers

Besides English, Konkani and Marathi, Goans, particularly those of the past generation, have contributed significantly to writings in Portuguese.
NameDatesPrincipal languagePrincipal formsNotes
Ben Antao1935-Englishfiction and non-fiction
Walfrido Antão1950s-1980sPortugueseshort stories
Carmo AzavedoPortugueseNoted for From the Tip of the Pen.
Alexandre Moniz BarbosaEnglish
Silviano C. BarbosaEnglishprose fictionTheir Canadian/Goan romance novel The Sixth Night takes you from a typically legendary life in Portuguese Goa in the 1950s all the way to Toronto, Canada.
Adeodato Barreto1905-37Portuguesepoetry
Floriano Barreto
Uday BhembréKonkanishort stories, plays
Alfredo BragançaPortuguesepoetry
Luís de Menezes Bragança1878-1938Portuguesejournalism
José Rangel1930-2004PortuguesePoetryAlso propreitor of one of Goa's most prolific printing press and publishing houses Tipografia Rangel.
Mário da Silva CoelhoPortuguesepoetry
José da Silva Coelho1889-1944Portugueseshort storiesGoa's most prolific Portuguese-language fiction-writer.
Alvaro da CostaPortuguesejournalism
Suneeta Peres Da Costa1976-EnglishfictionAn Australian-born Goan diasporic writer, noted for her novel Homework.
Amadeo Prazeres da CostaPortuguesejournalism
Francisco João "GIP" da Costa1859-1900Portugueseshort stories
Orlando Costa1929-2006Portuguesepoetry and novels
Maria Aurora CoutoEnglishprose fiction and criticism
Joao da Veiga Coutinho1918-2015EnglishNoted for A Kind of Absence: Life in the Shadows of History.
Nandita da CunhaEnglishprose fiction
Ananta Rau Sar Dessai1910Portuguese, Marathipoetry and radio theatreGoa's pre-eminent Portuguese writer in the mid-twentieth century.
Vimala Devi 1932-Portuguese, Catalan, EsperantoPre-eminent literary critic of Lusophone Goan writing and a leading diasporic writer.
Paulino Dias1874–1919
Sonia Faleiro1977-English
Agostinho Fernandes1932-2015PortuguesenovelsAuthor of a key post-independence novel, Bodki.
Caridade Damaciano Fernandes1904-1948KonkaninovelsA pioneering prose fiction writer in Konkani.
Joseph Furtado1872-1947English, Portuguesepoetry
Philip Furtado
Shenoi Goembab1877–1946Konkaniprose fiction, translations
Antonio GomesEnglishprose fiction and poetryNew York-based writer of poetry: Visions from Grymes Hill and a much acclaimed novel, The Sting of Peppercorns, published by Goa 1556, Mirrored Reflection published by Goa 1556 & Fundacao Oriente, 2013.
Francisco Luis Gomes1829–1869PortugueseThe first Goan novelist.
Olivinho Gomes1943-2009Konkani, Portuguese, Englishpoetry, translations and criticism
Júlio Gonçalves1846-1896Portugueseshort stories
Mariano Gracias
Ravindra Kelekar1925-2010Konkaniprose fiction
Amita Kanekar1965-Englishnovels
Violet Dias Lannoy1925-1973Englishnovel, short stories
Lino Leitao1930-2008Englishshort storiesbased in North America
Fanchu Loyola1891-1973PortuguesejournalismOne of Goa's leading independence activists.
Lambert Mascarenhas1914-English
Margaret MascarenhasEnglishliterary fiction, poetry, essay
Telo Mascarenhas1899-1979Portuguesejournalism, poetry, prose fiction
Damodar Mauzo1944-Konkanifiction
Nascimento Mendonça1884–1927PortugueseThrough the Mythical Ayodya.
Armando Menezes1902-1983
Dom Moraes1938-Englishpoetry, belles-lettres
Pundalik Naik1952-Konkaninovels and playsWrote the first Konkani novel to be translated into English.
Peter Nazareth1940-EnglishfictionA Goan diasporic writer from Uganda, noted for the novel The General is Up along with literary criticism.
Alberto de Noronha1920-2006Portuguesetranslations, criticism
Carmo NoronhaPortugueseWorks include Contracorrente and Escalvando na Belga.
Frederick Noronha1963Englishjournalism
Leslie de NoronhaEnglishprose fiction and poetry
Epitácio Pais1928-2009Portugueseshort stories
R. V. Pandit1917-1990Marathi, Konkani, PortuguesepoetryMost celebrated for his vast poetic production in Konkani.
Prakash S. PariekarPortuguese
Vasco Pinho1942-
Floriano PintoPortuguesepoetry
Jerry Pinto1966-Englishpoetry
Victor Rangel Ribeiro1925-Englishprose fiction
Leopoldo da RochaPortugueseAuthor of Casa Grande e Outras Recordações de um velho Goês.
Maria Elsa da Rocha1924-2007Portugueseshort stories, poetry
Alberto de Meneses Rodrigues1904-1971Portugueseprose fiction
Augusto do Rosário Rodrigues1910-?1999Portugueseshort stories. poetry
Abhay Sardesaipoetry, translation
Manohar SardesaiPortuguesepoetry
Laxmanrao Sardessai1904-1986Marathi, Konkani, PortuguesepoetryConsidered one of Goa's finest Marathi writers.
Melanie Silgardo1956-poetry
Frank Simoes1937–2002Englishadvertising and journalism
Carmo D'SouzaEnglishprose fictionAuthor of Angela's Goan Identity, Portugal In Search of Identity and other books. In a recent lecture, D'Souza himself traced the indigenous imagery, and the impact of Portuguese on Goan writing.
Eunice De Souza1940-Englishpoetry and fictionMumbai-based.
S. M. Tadkodkar
Savia Viegasfiction
Jessica Faleiro1976-Englishfiction, poetry, essaysAn Adult Third Culture Kid of Goan origin, noted for her novel ‘Afterlife: Ghost stories from Goa.’ She has also published non-fiction, short stories and poetry in print and online with Asia Literary Review, Forbes, Mascara Literary Review, Joao Roque Literary Review, IndiaCurrents, Kitaab, Muse India and Indian Quarterly, among others.
Englishfiction and non-fiction

Resources for and about Goan writers

Goa Arts and Literary Festival is a non- profit festival organised by volunteers. The first edition of GALF was held in 2010. The three-day fest had debates, lectures and discussions on art, music, photography, drawing a large audience from across the world at the International Centre of Goa, Dona Paula.