Through the references to Portugal in literary texts of descendants of the Portuguese, published in France and in North America, this article attempts to reflect on the Portuguese imaginary constructed by those who represent a type of "intimate foreigners" of Portuguese society and culture. The analysis of this "Imagined Portugal" will permit the revelation of some of the fundamentals of the "reterritorialization" of postmodern societies; this question is seen within the framework of a problematization of the functionalities of a "symbolic return" and of identifying stereotypes, both on the level of narrative construction and metaphor of the texts, and on that of socio-cultural legitimization.