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  5. European Literature Classics

European Literature Classics

Objectives

Students should develop skills in reading and analysing literary works, familiarizing themselves with different concepts and modes of interpretation. They will also deepen their knowledge of fundamental works from the European literary tradition, recognizing reading possibilities that go beyond the boundaries of a particular geographical space, time, language or literary genre. The discussion of issues that cut across the works under analysis will enable them to acquire tools for comparing literary texts from fundamentally different eras and characteristics.

General characterization

Code

01109429

Credits

6.0

Responsible teacher

Pedro Miguel Pimentel Sepúlveda de Gouveia Teixeira

Hours

Weekly - Available soon

Total - 168

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

  • Aristóteles. Poética. Tradução de Ana Maria Valente. Prefácio de Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira. 4.ª Edição. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2011.
  • Kafka, Franz. Os Filhos — Três Histórias. Tradução de Álvaro Gonçalves. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2007.
  • Musil, Robert. O Homem Sem Qualidades. Vol. I. Tradução, prefácio e notas de João Barrento. Lisboa: Dom Quixote, 2008.
  • Serra, José Pedro. Pensar o Trágico. Lisboa: Abysmo, 2020.
  • Sófocles. Rei Édipo. Tradução de Maria do Céu Zambujo Fialho. Lisboa: Edições 70, 1991.
  • Sokel, Walter H. “Beyond Self-Assertion: A Life of Reading Kafka”. A Companion to the Works of Franz Kafka. Organizado por James Rolleston. Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture. Rochester & Suffolk: Camden House, 2002. 33-59.
  • Tolstói, Lev. A Morte de Ivan Iliitch. Tradução e notas de Nina Guerra e Filipe Guerra. Posfácio de Vladimir Nabokov. Lisboa: Relógio D’Água, 2007.

Teaching method

Teaching is based on the presentation of content and class discussion of the texts that students must read and prepare for each session, as well as the writing of brief critical comments on key topics in the literary works. Detailed reading of each of the works will be encouraged, with only occasional reference to proposals from critical literature, as well as the development of their own interpretative hypotheses on the issues they address. In class discussion, different models of interpretative reading will be emphasised, discussing the relevance of models that have marked the respective critical traditions.

Students should write three papers commenting on excerpts from the works, reflecting on a particular topic raised in these excerpts. The aim of these exercises is to train students in writing commentaries on literary texts, articulating the development of original proposals for analysis with their substantiation, based on detailed readings of the text being commented on. For each lesson, a text or excerpt will be assigned for discussion, with further readings being recommended throughout the semester. In cases where only excerpts from a particular volume are read, the texts are made available to the students.

Evaluation method

Continuous assessment - A first brief task of interpretative writing will be carried out in the final half hour of one of the lessons, based on an excerpt from King Oedipus.(10%), Class participation.(10%), Two papers, that should be written in class, one in the middle of the semester and the other at the end (each with a weight of 40%). (80%)

Subject matter

The discussion of concepts that define human freedom will be accompanied by the reading of four fundamental works from the European literary tradition: King Oedipus by Sophocles, The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy, The Metamorphosis by Kafka and excerpts from the first book of The Man Without Qualities by Musil. The works will be analysed having as common thread the possibilities of individual freedom, considering the opposition present in them between social recognition and the intimate conditions of human life, dependent upon forces that go beyond it. This starting point will lead to discussions about the finitude of human existence, its possible tragic dimension or its space for freedom, in a way that will allow to identify motifs for a broad shared reflection in works belonging to different contexts. The analysis will also lead to considerations about concepts and modalities of interpretative analysis that have been important in the reading traditions of each of the works.