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, thestudent has wideknowledges about thehistoric, political, philosophical, religious andsocio-economic contextof thePortuguese culture.He has high capacity tounderstand and to elaborate acritical analysis of the cultural specificities of this area. He is able to develop a complex analysis handling complex conceptual issues and to formulate sharp reflections on thetopics of thisspecific area of studies.

Course contents

The course, entitled "The Portuguese way of being in the (colonial) world: Lusotropicalism as a dispositif", through a situated postcolonial theory, reflects on different areas of Portuguese colonial experience in Brazil and seeks to define the Luso-tropicalist ideology as a device to rewrite and review the Portuguese colonial desire and its imperial narratives. Essential product of the South-Atlantic, the Lusotropicalism elaborated by the Brazilian anthropologist Gilberto Freyre and then adopted by Salazar's Atlantic ideology, provides us with an important tool in order to rethink the experience of Portugal and especially to deconstruct the mythological apparatus, created by such a colonial experience, offering a detailed “anatomy” of Portugal identity and its national narratives. The course will be taught also in the collaboration with the Instituto Camões.

Readings/Bibliography

Essential Bibliography

Gilberto Freyre, Casa Grande & senzala, Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira, u.e.

Idem, O mundo que o português criou (1940)

Cláudia Castelo, "O Modo Português de estar no Mundo" O luso-tropicalismo e a ideologia colonial portuguesa (1933-1961), Porto, Afrontamento, 1999

Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, Uma história de regressos: Império, guerra colonial e pós-colonialismo, Porto, Afrontamento, 2004

Roberto Vecchi, Excepção atlântica. Pensar a literatura da gurra colonial, Porto, Afrontamento, 2010.

 

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. In collaboration with Instituto Camões, an 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 multemidia and internet contents will be introduced, in order to build an organic and clear framework of the morphology of the cultures in Portuguese languages. Different materials and texts used during the lessons are made ​​available to students for a better prepration of the course.

Links to further information

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

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Vecchi