My research is concerned with the issues of regionalism, regional identity and cultural geography in modern Portuguese literature. My thesis frames “regionalism” as an ideological project as opposed to a purely aesthetic choice employed by Portuguese authors of that period. To this end, my project studies the relationship between geography and ideological outlook in selected novels by Aquilino Ribeiro, Hélia Correia and José Saramago, which together span the entirety of the twentieth century.

Considering changing political attitudes to central Government within 20th Century Portugal, as well as broader circumstances of social and economic change in the context of increasing globalisation, this comparative research will study the role of the region in informing Portuguese cultural identity through novels.

This project will contemplate political theory and ideas of hegemony, in order to explore the tensions between centres and margins, urban and rural communities and capitals and “provinces”. The relevance of this research lies in the ongoing controversy in Portugal concerning de-centralisation and the intervention of Lisbon’s government in marginal rural areas, as well as broader cultural divisions in Western nations between so-called “metropolitan elites” and the values of local/regional communities. My thesis aims to contribute to these debates by evaluating regional identity (or identities) in a geographically small, and yet diverse and multi-faceted, European nation.