I Started Hoping Again that I Would Be Able to Belong to this City: Complex Notions of Belonging in Ilse Losa’s Sob Céus Estranhos

During the 1930ies and 1940ies Portugal became one of the most important zones of transit and temporary asylum for many Jewish and other refugees who were trying to escape Nazi persecution and war. Over 50,000 people passed through Portugal, most of them only stayed until they obtained a visa and passage to continue their forced journey to another country. Ilse Losa was one of the few Jewish refugees who remained in Portugal after the war. Her novel Sob Céus Estranhos (1962) is situated in Oporto in the period during and after Word War II and tells the story of José Berger, a Jewish refugee who decided to stay in Portugal. The paper is going to analyze how the novel constructs complex notions of belonging, negotiating potentially conflicting aspects related to the emotional and cultural identification and difference as well as the legal status of the protagonist.