Goan literature

Goan literature is the literature pertaining to the state of Goa in India.

Small region

Goa has a population of around 1.4 million and an area of 3,700 sq. kilometres (1,430 sq. miles). For a small region, it has a significant amount of publication activity, possibly in part because its people write in a number of languages—as many as 13, according to one count—and also because of the large expatriate and diaspora population of Goans settled across the globe.

It was the first place in Asia to have a printing press, which was brought by the Portuguese in 1556; Goa's Portuguese colonial rulers also believed in meticulous record-keeping.

Early roots

Goa has had a long love affair with the printed word, although growth has been slow, and punctuated by problems like linguistic breaks and censorship.

Goans, with a long history of emigration and foreign-rule, seem to have also adapted, either out of necessity or choice, to writing in languages that had their origins in distant Europe, like Portuguese and English.

Writing by Goans in other languages

Professor Peter Nazareth points out that that Goans have written in thirteen languages, of which the chief are Konkani, Marathi, English and Portuguese. The first of these, is the mother tongue, being written in four different scripts. Nazareth is editor of an anthology of Goan writing, Professor of English and African-American World Studies and adviser to the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He...
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