30167 - Portuguese and Brazilian Literature 2 (2nd cycle)

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 course entitled "Contemporaneity and subalternity of the South Atlantic", fully taught in Portuguese, aims to carry out a thorough analysis of the effects of power produced by the articulation and formation of the South Atlantic, in contemporary Lusophone contexts, in particular Portugal, Brazil and Angola. The concept of a "Lusophone South Atlantic" have been critically affirmed for the past two decades. It makes possible to formulate a situated critique towards the limits of some consolidated critical categories, on the relationship between Portuguese colonialism (and its “beyond”) and slavery directly responsible for founding the South Atlantic historical and critical space. In this way, it turned feasable to overcome over the years the erosion and the collapse of many so-called "postcolonial" categories. In this perspective, starting from an ethnographic recognition on racism and the current nostalgic remnants of colonialism and their conflicting projections on the ideological and political contemporary scene ("Black lives matter"), the course will strive to go backwards, in an anticronological path, to the covered roots of the present, analyzing - among other things- the last twentieth-century colonialism of Portugal in Africa, the most long-lived western slave system of Brazil, up to the wellsprings of the modern age with the configuration of a new, eccentric triangular space of power, among Portugal , Africa and Brazil, working as a matrix, through the Atlantic "negro" and "pardo", to singular and persistent forms of subalternity and resistence. The configuration of a relational, transnational, peripheral "South" will provide as well a lateral but effective access to a wider exegesis of the "global South".

Readings/Bibliography

Luiz Felipe Alencastro (2000), O trato dos viventes. Formação do Brasil no Atlântico Sul. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.

Margarida Calafate Ribeiro; António Sousa Ribeiro (orgs.) (2016),Geometrias da memória. Configurações Pós-coloniais. Porto: Afrontamento

Boaventura de Sousa Santos; Maria Paula Meneses (orgs.) (2010), Epistemologias do Sul. São Paulo: Cortez.

Eduardo Lourenco (2014), Do colonialismo como nosso impensado. Lisboa: Gradiva.

Lília Moriz Schwarz; Flávio Gomes (2018), Dicionario da escravidão e da liberdade. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.

 

Primary sources (selection)

Cornélio Penna (2006), Menina morta. Lisboa: Cotovia.

Ana Maria Gonçalves (2006), Um defeito de cor. Rio de Janeiro: Record.

José Eduardo Agualusa (1997), Nação crioula. Lisboa: Dom Quixote.

Ferrez (2005), Capão Pecado. São Paulo: Labortexto Editorial.

Pêro de Magalhães Gândavo (2004). História da Província de S. Cruz a que vulgarmente chamamos Brasil. Lisboa: Assírio& Alvim.

Gomes Eanes de Zurara (1981), Crónica dos feitos da Guiné. Lisboa: Academia Portuguesa de História.

Teaching methods

The method proposed in the course is mixed: it provides, in addition to the traditional lessons, 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.

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 multemedia and internet contents 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 collaborative platforms 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