Visual Perceptions and Written Impressions of the First World War at the Time of Portuguese Modernism

Abstract

The first conflict on a world-wide scale broke out just as the Modernist Movement in Portugal was taking its first steps. Britain’s resistance towards Portuguese participation in the War, and the exacerbated positions of those in favour and those against it, were reflected in both illustrations and articles published in the periodical press of the day, as well as in later accounts written by the members of the Portuguese Expeditionary Force (CEP). In certain cases, these written and visual narratives deconstructed stereotypes, whilst in others new cultural imagotypes of British allies were created. This article attempts to compare and contrast such deconstructions appearing in memoirs, with visual perceptions and written impressions of the conflict, published in the periodicals of the time. For the purpose of this paper, two, amongst them, have been selected: A Águia, in which Fernando Pessoa made his literary debut and to which several of the collaborators of Orpheu, the emblematic journal of Portuguese Modernism, also contributed; and Ilustração Portugueza, an important record of Portuguese life in the first quarter of the twentieth century, in which Stuart Carvalhais was one of most distinguished contributors