29898 - Portuguese and Brazilian Literature 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

A very good knowledge of Portuguese is essential, since the lessons will be taught in this language. Furthermore, the student has deep knowledge about the history of Portuguese and Brazilian literatures and cultures, with a particular attention paid to the relation between literary texts and the historical, artistic and linguistic contexts. He knows, and is able to use, practical and effective methods for the analysis and interpretation of literary texts and other cultural objects.

Course contents

The monographic course, taught in blended mode and entirely in Portuguese, has as its topic "A invisibilidade do mal: fenomenologias literárias do massacre nas literaturas de língua portuguesa". It proposes to study, in relation to different contexts (Brazil, Portugal, Africa), how the untestable experience of a massacre (whose execution also presupposes an erasure both of the experience and the memory) creates a dense conceptual link with the more general topic of the different violences, effective and epistemic, of the contexts at stake (colonialism, coloniality, etc.). A feature therefore essential to develop an articulated knowledge of a specific context, in this case of a Portuguese-speaking country. The "writing of the massacre", almost a literary "genre" by itself, actually allows the abysmal and silent trauma of the massacre to be removed from an invisibility, to redeem its surviving traces and to obtain the articulation of a possible public memory. As well shown by a founding work such as Os Sertões by Euclides da Cunha (1902) dedicated to the destruction of the community of Belo Monte and the settlement of Canudos in 1897, a writing of the massacre feeds other possible writings of violence (as is the case of the guerrilla of Araguaia in the repressive years of the Brazilian military dictatorship). Thanks to a sampling of case studies (in addition to the massacre of Belo monte, Wiriyamu, Mozambique, 1972 in the midst of Portugal's colonial war in Africa, 27 de Maio, Angola, in 1977, Araguaia in the context of the Brazilian military dictatorship) where "literature" is configured as the privileged place of the "survivals" of what had been intentionally extinguished. In short, the definition of "writing about the massacre" combines a void of representation (the massacre) but at the same time associates also a way (the writing) to re-signify the precarious meaning of trauma projecting it in its proper historical and political dimension.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Essential references

Primary sources:

Euclides da Cunha, Os sertões

José Eduardo Agualusa, Estação das chuvas

Bernardo Kucinski, O congresso dos desaparecidos

Secondary sources:

Edgar Salvadori De Decca, "Quaresma: um relato de massacre republicano". Anos 90, 5(8), 1997, 45–61. https://https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/anos90/article/view/6194

Fabio Dei, "Descrivere, teorizzare, testimoniare la violenza". Antropologia e violenza. Roma: Meltemi, 2005, pp.7-75.

Mustafah Dhada, O massacre português de Wiriamu. Moçambique 1972. Lisboa: Tintas da China, 2016.

Georges Didi- Huberman, Come le lucciole. Una politica delle sopravvivenze. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2010

Nicola Gavioli e Vinicius M. de Carvalho, Literature and Ethics in Contemporary Brazil. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Wolfang Sofsky, Saggio sulla violenza. Torino: Einaudi, 1998.

Roberto Vecchi, “(Re)citando o extremo: o olhar da Medusa, o finito e infinito do horror”, in Márcio Seligmann-Silva, Jaime Ginzburg, Francisco Foot Hardman (orgs.) Escritas da violência. Vol I O testemunho, Rio de Janeiro, 7Letras, 2012, pp.239-253.

(an integration of bibliographic references will be provided during the lessons)

 

Teaching methods

The course participates to UNIBO teaching innovation project.The method proposed in the course is mixed: it provides, in addition to the traditional lessons, thanks 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 (Wiki), a final presentation of each personal work with the participation of all the class. In this way, the preparation is assessed during the course (through the constractivist modality provided by Virtuale- not in a final test.

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 literatures and 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 literary texts and the 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

For its conceptual nature the course defines a strict dialogue between literatures, arts and cultures. For this reason, beside literary texts, to which a specific workshop (reading and commenting) will be dedicated, other multimedia and internet contents -provided through Virtuale platform- will be introduced, in order to build an organic and clear framework of the topic. Different materials and texts used during the lessons are made available to students through the collaborative platform set up specifically for the class.

Links to further information

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

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Vecchi