JOÃO LUÍS LISBOA
To read with whom and (with) when. (Several Camões).

Os Lusíadas , as other texts do, works on a heritage, becoming, gradually, the main reference for those who write and read in Portugal, until it is assumed itself as a classic. This article follows some reasons, values, tensions, topics of two and a half centuries during which Camões and his work were discussed. In each moment one reads whatever makes sense, not as a completely new text, but rather as the possibility of redoing the relationship between past and present.
Two problems are underlined here. The first problem is the fact that a book like this, a "classic", is not a consensual text. It generates conflict and therefore, it also generates exclusion. The second problem is in what way a text "remains" and passes through times and discussions. These two problems are put together as the process of appropriation of what is understood as a community heritage runs.