Reading, writing and remembering the city: José Cardoso Pires’s Lisboa, livro de bordo

Melo e Castro, P. (2009) Reading, writing and remembering the city: José Cardoso Pires’s Lisboa, livro de bordo. Journal of Romance Studies, 9(2), pp. 101-115. (doi: 10.3828/jrs.9.2.101)

Abstract

This article examines the way in which José Cardoso Pires accesses and imparts the urban culture of Lisbon and his own memories of the city in Lisboa, livro de bordo [Lisbon Logbook]. The author’s flânerie through the city is read in the light of Certeau’s ideas concerning walking, and the way in which the calçadas [mosaic pavements] of Lisbon inform Cardoso Pires’s description of his movements is examined. There follows an analysis of Cardoso Pires’s discussion of the azulejos [painted tiles] in the stations of the Lisbon underground as a sort of memory bank of the city and of the mnemotechnics displayed elsewhere by the author’s own movements across the surface of Lisbon. Prompted by his own personal experience of urban space, Cardoso Pires preserves certain historical and cultural memories, leaves leeway for the reader to establish his own relation to Lisbon, yet is also beholden, to an extent, to the official image of the city.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Castro, Dr Paul
• Authors: Melo e Castro, P.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > Hispanic Studies
• Journal Name: Journal of Romance Studies
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• ISSN: 1473-3536
• ISSN (Online): 1752-2331