The Azores and Cape Verde were considered isolated archipelagos in the former Portuguese empire.

During the 1930s, writers from both archipelagoes initiated projects to explore açorianidade and caboverdianidade, a tradition that would continue for generations. Despite vast differences between the two regions in terms of race and politics, writers in the Azores and Cape Verde developed two bodies of literature with striking similarities.

In her upcoming talk, Brianna Medieros, an independent scholar from Providence, Rhode Island, will explain how these similarities are due in part, to the archipelagos’ insularity. Her recent book, The Eruption of Insular Identities: A Comparative Study of Azorean and Cape Verdean Prose, is the first extensive study comparing the literatures of the two archipelagoes.