Quadros and his Readers

Abstract This chapter examines questions relating to readership in three texts authored by António Quadros’s penname João Pedro Grabato Dias: the short stories Sete Contos para um Carnaval, the preface to O Povo é Nós, and a poem from Sagapress. It uses these texts to propose a means of reconciling the debate in post-colonial studies concerning the modes of reading—historicist and deconstructionist—most appropriate for approaching texts written in colonial contexts. Furthermore, author examines Quadros’s framing of literature’s potential to have a tangible, positive, and material impact on society, through its readers, in light of decolonial theory’s emphasis on a critical practice directed towards radically transforming the world.