Plus ça change: (Post)Colonial Timor-Leste as a Return to (Pre)Colonial Realities in the Novels of Luis Cardoso

This article examines the novels of the East Timorese writer Luís Cardoso, and argues that their representations of a colonial past should not be simply interpreted as memorializations of Timor-Leste’s suffering at the hands of foreign aggressors. It proposes that underlying their revisiting of the past is a call for acknowledgement of the agency of East Timorese in the history of violent conflict that has troubled the nation, and that only this can guarantee true reconciliation, justice and national independence.