The Whaling Museum in Lajes do Pico will host next Saturday at 9:30 PM the launch of the books Contos Tradicionais Açorianos (Traditional Azorean tales) by Teófilo Braga and Aquela Palavra Mar (That Word Sea), organised and published by Anabela Mimoso.
Integrated in the celebration of the centennial of the Establishment of the Republic, the launch of the anthology Contos Tradicionais Açorianos intends to pay tribute to Teófilo Braga.
More than a defender of the Republic, President of the Provisional Government of the Portuguese Republic, in place of Manuel de Arriaga, Anabela Mimoso wants to honour the Azorean anthologist of Contos Tradicionais do Povo Açoreano (Traditional Tales of the Azorean People), 1869, which was republished by the University of the Azores in 1982 and has been out of print for a long time.
In order to fill this gap, Anabela Mimoso organised a work of great scientific rigour in terms of methodology, historical and definitions, collecting 31 texts of Azorean origin, divided into three different sections (“Contos de Fada e Casos da Tradição Popular”/Fairytales and Popular Traditional Tales, “Casos e Facécias da Tradição Popular”/ Popular Traditional Tales and Witticisms, and “Lendas, Patranhas e Fábulas/Legends, Tall Tales and Fables).
In addition to texts collected, this works also adds the previous versions of Adolfo Coelho and Sylvio Romero (and subsequent variants) and mentions their different sources in an explanatory table which summarises the information collected by Teófilo Braga.
In turn, the launch of the book addressed at children and youngsters Aquela Palavra Mar which, in terms of narrative and themes, comprises motifs such as the analogy between myth and childhood, the similarity between childhood and the poetic word, and the connection between dreams and childhood.
This work easily reaches young readers by stimulating their participation in the reconstruction of meaning due to an excellent cohesion and textual coherence.
In addition to addressing the themes of childhood, the mythical age, the “being,” the isolation of the islander, this work also reflects the extreme visual writing of Anabela Mimoso.