Jorge de Sena, Freedom of Thought in the Media and the Portuguese-Speaking (Inter)Cultural Community

Jorge de Sena (1919–1978), recognised as one of the most versatile Portuguese intellectuals of the 20th century, left a legacy that, as some scholars argue (Baltrusch, 2019; Santos, 2019), warrants deeper investigation to fully understand his impact on Portuguese-language cultural heritage. Outlawed by the Salazar regime, Jorge de Sena built an extensive body of work across Portugal, Brazil, and the United States, asserting his intellectual independence from an early age by resisting political affiliations, social patronage, and literary trends. While this defiance clashed with the oppressive regime that denied him a place to live in Portugal, it also enabled him to propose forwardthinking ideas, such as establishing a Portuguese-speaking (inter)cultural community. Thus, based on the observation that Jorge de Sena’s views on this community remain largely overlooked and have yet to be systematically explored and disseminated, we hypothesise that the media, through their treatment of this intellectual figure, are partially responsible for this lack of recognition. To test our hypothesis, we mapped, read, analysed, and interpreted various media content by or about Jorge de Sena from 1942 to the present, dividing this period into two phases: before and after April 25, 1974. Firstly, it is evident that during the dictatorial period, Sena consistently expressed his freedom of thought in the works he produced. Secondly, texts about Jorge de Sena written by other authors emphasise his life journey more than his intellectual contributions and legacy.