B8118 - History of Portuguese-Speaking Cultures (LM)

Learning outcomes

The student has wide knowledges about the historic, political, philosophical, religious and socio-economic context of the Lusophone cultures (Portuguese, Brazilian, African, Asiatic). S/he has high capacity to understand and to elaborate a critical analysis of the cultural specificities of this area. S/he is able to develop, through a conceptual commitment, a deep analysis handling complex conceptual issues and to formulate sharp reflections on the topics of this specific area of studies.

Course contents

The course of advanced level is entitled “On Non-Decolonization”: African and Portuguese thought on anti-colonialism, African revolt, independence, and decolonization". It aims to trace, also in connection with the topics of the course on Portuguese and Brazilian Literature, a careful mapping of the thought entailed by the historical process of decolonizations (of Portugal in Africa) and independences (of the former African colonies). Although it is impossible to trace an exhaustive genealogy that intersects intellectual debates not only within the Portuguese language ( for example, voices such as Césaire or Fanon), they nevertheless belong to the particular and prolonged colonial experience in Africa, which was subject to the Portuguese metropolis for much of the 20th century, conditions of articulation. What can be gleaned from the exegesis of Portuguese-language sources (both African, such as Cabral or Agostinho Neto, and Portuguese, albeit largely unpublished before the Carnations Revolution, such as Lourenço or the documents of the Movimento das Forças Armadas, after 13 years of colonial war) is that decolonization and independence on a theoretical level critically bring together thinkers from the colonies and those from the metropolis, creating an indirect dialogue that enriches the cultural history of the crisis that led to the collapse of Atlantic Portugal and the birth of African nations.

Readings/Bibliography

Essential references

Amílcar Cabral, Documentário (2008, trad. it. complementare Per una rivoluzione africana, 2019)

Eduardo Lourenço, Do colonialismo como nosso impensado (2a ed 2024)

Agostinho Neto, Discursos ("Destruir o velho para consrtuir o novo") 1976

Fernando Rosas (et al.) O adeus ao império português (2015)

Manuela Ribeiro Sanches (ed.) Malhas que os impérios tecem. Textos antui-coloniais, contextos pós-coloniais (2011)

Teaching methods

The course is delivered in blended mode. The method proposed in the course is mixed (blended learning): it provides, in addition to the traditional lessons, thnaks to the platform Virtuale, collective workshop for the discussion of common texts, the construction of specific thematic routes to each individual student, the planning shared by all the class of a work project, a final presentation of each personal work with the participation of all the class. In this way, the preparation is assessed partly during the course, not only in a final test. In collaboration with Camões - Instiuto da Cooperação e da Língua, an alternative e-learning version of the course is available for any possible interested student.

Assessment methods

The exam aims to assess the achievement of the main learning objectives of the course, namely: forming a deep critical knowledge about the history and theory of Portuguese, Brazilian and African Portuguese-speaking cultures, with particular attention to the relation between literary texts and the historical, cultural and aesthetic contexts; strengthening a wide knowledge and use of critical methodologies and practices for the analysis and interpretation of the critical, historical and cultural contexts. The exam will be articulated on different tests that contribute to determine the final evaluation and disseminated during the course. In fact, it is articulated in different modes: organization of joint seminars where an active participation in the discussion is a favorable element for the assessment of the skills in order to achieve progressively and integrally the course objectives; preparation of a final work with a deep analysis of a topic among those approached during the course and its following discussion in the occasion of a final oral test on the main topics of the course. The student will be put in the condition, either through the lessons and an appropriate path of readings, to achieve the objectives of the course. The evaluation will be proportionate to the performance of the student in the different moments of the course. In this sense, it will be considereted satisfactory an informed knowledge of the main topics addressed, intersected with critical methodologies used during the development of the course. If this essential level is not achieved, the student will be put anyway in the condition, through an integrative program of individual readings, to reach an acceptable level of comptences. The articulation of the knowledges on a more varied and lucidly composed textual, contextual and critical framework, dialoguing not only with the premises but also with the most crucial topics of the course, in particular those of conceptual order, will add value to the overall evaluation of the student. Finally, in this context, the integration of a critical and orginal contribution, capable to open new and alternative perspectives of analysis and interpretation of the mains issues of the course, is evaluated as an excellent result of the student's performance.

Teaching tools

he course defines a strict dialogue among critical concepts, literatures, arts and cultures. For this reason, beside literary texts, to which a specific workshop (reading and commenting) will pay special attention, other multimidia and internet contents will be introduced, in order to build an organic and clear framework of the morphology of the cultures in Portuguese languages (through the platform Virtuale, that is Moodle). Different materials and texts used during the lessons are made available to students for a better prepration of the course. The course is carried out in Blended Learning modality.

Links to further information

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/roberto.vecchi

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Vecchi