Ellen Sapega's study documents artistic responses to images of the Portuguese nation promoted by Portugal's Office of State Propaganda under Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. Combining archival research with current theories informing the areas of memory studies, visual culture, women's autobiography, and postcolonial studies, the author follows the trajectory of three well-known cultural figures working in Portugal and its colonies during the 1930s and 1940s.

The book begins with an analysis of official Salazarist culture as manifested in two state-sponsored commemorative events: the...