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Topics in Portuguese Studies

Objectives

This curricular unit has a monographic nature, reflecting the teacher's ongoing research. Topics in Portuguese studies will be discussed in reference to a selection of texts that fall within this research, with the following learning objectives:
(1) To familiarize students with fundamental questions and concepts in literary theory and literary history, building upon textual analysis and interpretative problems raised by works of literature written in Portuguese;
(2) To develop the student's analytical skills and to incentivize their theorizing on literary texts;
(3) To ensure that such theorization is grounded by the text and that it is congruent from a philosophical and literaryhistorical perspective;
(4) To ensure that the acquired skills and knowledge translate into clear, coherent, rigorous and relevant writing.

General characterization

Code

03100413

Credits

10.0

Responsible teacher

Humberto Carlos Catita Palma Brito

Hours

Weekly - 2

Total - 280

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

  • FEIJÓ,A.M., Uma Admiração Pastoril pelo Diabo, Lisboa: INCM, 2015
  • GIL, J.,Fernando Pessoa ou a Metafísica das Sensações, Lisboa: Relógio d'Água, 1987
  • LOPES, S.R., "A ficção da memória e a inscrição do esquecimento no «Livro do Desassossego»",Revista Colóquio/Letras n.º 77,Jan. 1984, p. 19-26
  • _, "Des-figurações (sobre o «Livro do Desassossego»)", Revista Colóquio/Letras n.º102, Mar. 1988, p. 61-67
  • LOURENÇO, Eduardo. Fernando, Rei da Nossa Baviera, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1993
  • MEDEIROS, P. Pessoa's Geometry of the Abyss, Modernity and the Book of Disquiet, Londres: Legenda, 2013
  • PESSOA, F., Livro do Desassossego, ed. R. Zenith, Lisboa, Assírio & Alvim, 2008
  • _, Livro do Desasocego. T. I e II. Ed. J. Pizarro. Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 2010
  • _, Crítica. Ensaios, Artigos, Entrevistas, ed. F.C. Martins, Lisboa, Assírio & Alvim, 2000
  • RUBIM, G., "Livro: o único, o múltiplo e o inexistente", Revista Colóquio/Letras. Ensaio,n.º 155/156, Jan. 2000, p. 216-219

Teaching method

This course will take place in the usual terms of a seminar. The expository component will be followed by a debate in which all students must participate. The expository component aims to provide the framework for the interpretive, historical-literary, philosophical and conceptual issues raised by Kafka's text, while drawing an argument concerning such issues. The debate, serving, whenever useful, as a recap and as an occasion for clarifications, will also be of help to the task of summarizing conclusions, but above all as a starting point for a theorizing effort and for its constant questioning.

Evaluation method

Assessment - Written essay (100%)

Subject matter

This seminar proposes a survey of the Book of Disquiet and of its critical reception.
Session 1. Overview of the seminar. Methodologies and evaluation. Brief introduction on the editions and on the Digital Archive.

Sessions 2-7:
The prose of the Book of Disquiet.
Intertextualities (I). Portuguese echoes: Vieira, Bartolomeu dos Mártires, Cesário Verde, Alberto Caeiro.
Intertextualities (II): French echoes: Chateaubriand, Sénancour, Amiel, Vigny, Rousseau, Balzac.
Connections with Pessoa's heteronyms.

Sessions 8-10: some critical perspectives.
Editorial questions. Zenith, Sobral Cunha, Pizarro.
Hermeneutic questions: Silvina Rodrigues Lopes, José Gil, António M. Feijó, Gustavo Rubim, Victor K. Mendes, Joana Matos Frias, Paulo de Medeiros.

Sessions 11-14:
Ways of seeing, ways of showing.
Photographic Soares: meteorology, atmosphere, light, and writing.
The art of dreaming. The negative of Alberto Caeiro.
Intertextualities (III): Thematic echoes. Dickens, Kafka, Flaubert, Diane Arbus.