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  4. Portuguese and English Studies
  5. Contemporaries: literature and culture

Contemporaries: literature and culture

Objectives

This curricular unit aims to provide a better understanding of fundamental factors in the 20th and 21st centuries Portuguese culture. The main goals are:
- To identify some of the main issues of Portuguese culture in the 20th and 21st centuries;
- To promote critical thinking and careful commentary on these works;
- To provide students with contact with a variety of cultural objects;
- To develop skills for written and oral understanding and production;
-To promote debate in class, discussing the problems raised by the different objects and topics of the curricular unit.

General characterization

Code

01109446

Credits

6.0

Responsible teacher

Joana Rodrigues Meirim da Silva

Hours

Weekly - 4

Total - 168

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

  • AAVV, O Século XX Português. Política, Economia, Sociedade, Cultura, Império, org. Fernando Rosas, Lisboa, Tinta-da-China, 2020.
  • AAVV, Novas Cartas Portuguesas, Entre Portugal e o Mundo, org. Ana Luísa Amaral e Marinela Freitas, Alfragide, D. Quixote, 2014.
  • Cardina, Miguel, O Atrito da Memória. Colonialismo, guerra e descolonização no Portugal contemporâneo, Lisboa, Tinta-da-China, 2023.
  • Carmo, Carina Infante do, A Noite Inquieta, Ensaios sobre Literatura, Política e Memória, Vila Nova de Famalicão, Húmus, 2020.
  • Ferreira, Ana Paula, Women Writing Portuguese Colonialism in Africa, Liverpool University Press, 2020.
  • Kilomba, Grada, Memórias da Plantação. Episódios de racismo quotidiano, trad. Nuno Quintas, Lisboa, Orfeu Negro, 2019.
  • Pinto, António Costa (ed.), Contemporary Portugal. Politics, Society and Culture, New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.
  • Sanches, Manuela Ribeiro (org.) Portugal não é um país pequeno. Contar o “império” na pós-colonialidade, Lisboa, Livros Cotovia,

Teaching method

Teaching methodology is based on continuous assessment and active participation in class after theoretical-expository content.

Evaluation method

Continuous assessment - Attendance and Participation (15%), Midterm written test (35%); Final written test (35%)(70%), Participation in debates (15%)

Subject matter

The syllabus of this curricular unit proposes the reading and analysis of relevant works to question some of the fundamental factors that have had, and continue to have an impact : dictatorship, war, empire, democracy, gender. It comprises six modules.
1st Module: dictatorship, fear, and humdrum. “Um adeus Português” (1951) e No Reino da Dinamarca (1958), de Alexandre O’Neill.
2nd Module: Some political short stories by Jorge de Sena (Os Grão-Capitães, 1976).
3rd Module: New Portuguese Letters(1972), by Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta, and Maria Velho da Costa and the “gravity of this undertaking”.
4th module: Satire on Portuguese society in the post-25 April period: Arte de Ser Português (TV show, 1978-1979), by Alberto Pimenta and Jorge Listopad.
5th module: The fear of returning to Casa Portuguesa: Estar em casa (2018) e Dias e Dias (2020), by Adília Lopes.
6th module: Humour and cand colonial memory in contemporary Portugal,O Kit by Patrícia Lino.