30809 - History of Portuguese Culture (LM)

Learning outcomes

A very good knowledge of Portuguese is essential, since the lessons will be taught in this language. Furthermore, the student has wide knowledges about the historic, political, philosophical, religious and socio-economic context of the Portuguese cultures. He has high capacity to understand and to elaborate a critical analysis of the cultural specificities of this area. He is able to develop 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 History of Portuguese culture, taught in a blended format and entirely in Portuguese, is entitled "Eduardo Lourenço e os impensados de Portugal". On the occasion of the centenary of the Portuguese philosopher's birth, the topic of the "unthought" has become one of the synthetic tracks that can represent, alongside that of the "heterodoxia", Eduardo Lourenços's multiplicity of themes and thought. The connection with Portugal, that is the frame of all the "unthoughts", highlights how there are at least two prevailing connections elaborated by Lourenço in the course of his careful "psychoanalysis" of Portuguese destiny. The Portuguese "impensados" (a category that has both a conceptual and an ironic connotation) are in reality the extremes of a direct relationship: Salazar and Portuguese colonialism. So, the reconstruction of the concept will allow to grasp its potential also with respect to many other wide-ranging interpretative fields (tragedy, Europe, Portuguese identity, etc.) of Lourenço's thought. "Thinking the unthought or the unthinkable" is the philosopher's way of reducing the uncritical risk of a weak grasp of an otherwise ontological and founding category that brings into play Lourenço's entire "system" of thought.

Readings/Bibliography

Essential references

Eduardo Lourenço, O fascismo nunca exisitu. Lisboa: Publicações Dom Quixote, 1976.

Idem, “Do Salazarismo como nosso impensado. Divagação anacrónica ou ainda não”, “Documento” de Semanário, Lisboa, de 23 de Janeiro de 1988,23/I/1988 pp. 54-56 (e "Finisterra-Revista de Reflexão e Crítica", n.º 9, Lisboa, Inverno, pp. 99-113).

Idem, Do colonialismo como nosso impensado. Lisboa: Gradiva, 2014.

José Gil (1996). “O ensaismo trágico”, in José Gil e Fernando Catroga (Eds.). O ensaismo trágico de Eduardo Lourenço. Lisboa: Relógio d'Água, 1996, pp.7-27.

Margarida Calfate Ribeiro-Roberto Vecchi, Eduardo Lourenço: uma geoPolítica do pensamento. Porto: Afrontamento, 2023.

 

Teaching methods

The course participates to UNIBO teaching innovation project. 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 Instituto Camões, 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

The 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