The body in the images of the Portuguese Colonial War: subjectivities under analysis

Abstract

This paper intends to analyze the representation of bodies in photographic images by the Portuguese military, representing themselves and local population, produced in the context of the Portuguese Colonial War. Starting with the idea of the body as a constituent element of subjectivity, these images present themselves as spaces of tension and negotiation of complex identities. The analysis will take into account the dominant visual regimes that contextualize these photos, namely through an archaeology of the imagetic field, mobilizing the binomial honorific portrait/disciplinary portrait. The possibilities of resistance to conventions of representation in the photographic space and the processes of hermeneutical performativity that also include the contemporary spectator of these images are also considered in the articulation between memory and photography.

Keywords Portuguese colonial war; representations of the body; photography; Visual Studies