Editorial

Abstract

If modernity is marked by crisis at all levels, including that of identities, a crisis that has been especially scrutinized since the world wars, the present time has now reintroduced the problem of war and the emergence of radicalisms which, by announcing political despotism, border on terrorism. It seems therefore appropriate to revisit the way Literature, in particular, and Art, in general, have related to these phenomena, especially to that of the authoritarian exercise of power: in its cultural embeddedness, how it mentions them, clearly or covertly, by denouncing or compacting, revolutionizing, representing, (counter)proposing... Hence this dossier «Representations of authoritarianism in Portuguese and Brazilian literature», coordinated and presented by Annabela Rita and Zuzana Burianová, dedicated to the topic within Lusophone literature.