Portuguese and Brazilian Studies (3)
A.Y. 2023/2024
Learning objectives
This course aims to provide students with a general understanding of historical and literary evolution of portuguese and brazilian culture. An introduction to formation («formação») of national literatures of Portugal and Brazil is offered, with a specific attention to complex colonial and political history. For Portugal, we analyze the development of Literature from medieval origins to contemporary era, for Brazil we analyze the evolution of literature from colonial formation in XVI century until the culture of our days. Particular attention is given to the history of ideas (colonialism, imperialism, cultural hiper-identity, semi-periphery) and concepts.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding: outline of national and imperial Portuguese history; formation of colony-Brazil and development of Brazilian Literature as national literature (colonial canon, imperial canon, republican canon), main authors and literary movements from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era; fundamental elements of history of ideas and conceptual history that help analyze the societies and cultures of two countries.
Applying knowledge and understanding: ability to read and contextualize some paradigmatic works of portuguese and brazilian thought and literature; ability to read three significant works from selected period; understanding of historic, cultural, and social implications of literary texts; ability to place authors, movements and works in their context; ability to analyze literary texts through the application of ideas and concepts borrowed from literary criticism, post-colonial theory and cultural studies.
Applying knowledge and understanding: ability to read and contextualize some paradigmatic works of portuguese and brazilian thought and literature; ability to read three significant works from selected period; understanding of historic, cultural, and social implications of literary texts; ability to place authors, movements and works in their context; ability to analyze literary texts through the application of ideas and concepts borrowed from literary criticism, post-colonial theory and cultural studies.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The course is titled National and imperial simulacra. Literature in Portugal between Baroque and Romanticism. Literature in Brazil between Realism, Regionalism and Modernism, and consists of the following two parts:
Part A (30 hours): Thinking Portuguese literature between the South Atlantic and national projects [Vincenzo Russo]
Part B (30 hours): An established literary system? Realism, Regionalism and the peripheral modernities of Brazil. [Marianna Scaramucci]
The aim of the course is giving a synoptic reconstruction of the fundamental stages of Portuguese and Brazilian literature, connecting the evolution of two spaces so closely linked by colonial, post-colonial and linguistic bonds. Two Literatures, which the course puts into dialogue in a scheme that reflects the chronological shift between "European time" and "American time".
The history and literary history of Portugal from the end of the sixteenth century to Romanticism (or from the Castilian annexation in 1580 to Constitutionalism, to use political categories) will be the object of the first part of the course, which provides for a theoretical study on the concepts and on the cultural and philosophical lines of thought that constitute the disciplinary range through which to account for the literary narrative of the Portuguese nation.
Those stories prepare the ground for the analysis of Brazil's emancipation from colony to independent nation, in the transition from the self-proclaimed Empire, to abolitionism and the República Velha (1889), until its crisis, in the 1920s. The subject of the second part of the course will be the literary declinations of this historical-cultural phase: the course will problematize the idea of a uniform Brazilian literary system, putting the prodromes of a "literatura de autoria negra" into dialogue with the voices of Machado de Assis and Lima Barreto, until the crucial identity turn proposed by Modernism and the "Manifesto Antropófago".
The course provides 9 credits.
The course program is valid until September 2025.
Part A (30 hours): Thinking Portuguese literature between the South Atlantic and national projects [Vincenzo Russo]
Part B (30 hours): An established literary system? Realism, Regionalism and the peripheral modernities of Brazil. [Marianna Scaramucci]
The aim of the course is giving a synoptic reconstruction of the fundamental stages of Portuguese and Brazilian literature, connecting the evolution of two spaces so closely linked by colonial, post-colonial and linguistic bonds. Two Literatures, which the course puts into dialogue in a scheme that reflects the chronological shift between "European time" and "American time".
The history and literary history of Portugal from the end of the sixteenth century to Romanticism (or from the Castilian annexation in 1580 to Constitutionalism, to use political categories) will be the object of the first part of the course, which provides for a theoretical study on the concepts and on the cultural and philosophical lines of thought that constitute the disciplinary range through which to account for the literary narrative of the Portuguese nation.
Those stories prepare the ground for the analysis of Brazil's emancipation from colony to independent nation, in the transition from the self-proclaimed Empire, to abolitionism and the República Velha (1889), until its crisis, in the 1920s. The subject of the second part of the course will be the literary declinations of this historical-cultural phase: the course will problematize the idea of a uniform Brazilian literary system, putting the prodromes of a "literatura de autoria negra" into dialogue with the voices of Machado de Assis and Lima Barreto, until the crucial identity turn proposed by Modernism and the "Manifesto Antropófago".
The course provides 9 credits.
The course program is valid until September 2025.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is planned for Portuguese students, and for those students who aim to attend one year of Portuguese and Brazilian literature even if they have no Portuguese language training.
Teaching methods
The course adopts the following teaching methods: lectures and moments of discussion focusing on the proposed literary and theoretical texts. The course is taught entirely in Italian. Theoretical texts are in Italian, the literary texts can be studied whether in Italian or Portuguese.
Teaching Resources
The course has a site on the online platform Ariel (https://vrussolp123.ariel.ctu.unimi.it), and a Teams channel (code: l53w42z) to which reference is made for lecture Power point and other materials and information provided by the teachers.
Assessment texts, available at the University libraries or on the course platforms, are the following:
Part A:
- Roberto Vecchi-Vincenzo Russo (a cura di), La Letteratura Portoghese. I testi e le idee, Le Monnier, Firenze, 2017. (Introduzione; Seconda parte)
- Essays: Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, "Una storia di ritorni. Impero, Guerra coloniale e postcolonialismo", in Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Atlantico Periferico. Il postcolonialismo portoghese e il sistema globale, Diabasis, 2008.
Part B:
- Luciana Stegagno-Picchio, Storia della letteratura brasiliana, Torino, Einaudi, 1997 o edizioni successive. (Introduzione; capitolo 8; capitolo 13)
- Literary texts, in Italian translation or in Portuguese, organized and provided by the teacher.
- Essays: Finazzi-Agro', Ettore; Pincherle, Maria Caterina. La cultura cannibale. Oswald de Andrade: da Pau-Brasil al Manifesto antropofago, Meltemi, Roma, 1999.
Non-attending students must contact the teachers to arrange an appropriate program.
Assessment texts, available at the University libraries or on the course platforms, are the following:
Part A:
- Roberto Vecchi-Vincenzo Russo (a cura di), La Letteratura Portoghese. I testi e le idee, Le Monnier, Firenze, 2017. (Introduzione; Seconda parte)
- Essays: Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, "Una storia di ritorni. Impero, Guerra coloniale e postcolonialismo", in Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Atlantico Periferico. Il postcolonialismo portoghese e il sistema globale, Diabasis, 2008.
Part B:
- Luciana Stegagno-Picchio, Storia della letteratura brasiliana, Torino, Einaudi, 1997 o edizioni successive. (Introduzione; capitolo 8; capitolo 13)
- Literary texts, in Italian translation or in Portuguese, organized and provided by the teacher.
- Essays: Finazzi-Agro', Ettore; Pincherle, Maria Caterina. La cultura cannibale. Oswald de Andrade: da Pau-Brasil al Manifesto antropofago, Meltemi, Roma, 1999.
Non-attending students must contact the teachers to arrange an appropriate program.
Assessment methods and Criteria
For attending students only (attending 75% of the hours), the exam consists of a preliminary written test, which mainly focuses on the topics of the lessons, and an optional oral exam to improve the result of the written test. For non-attending students and for those who do not take the written exam, the examination will consist of an oral exam that focuses on the bibliography provided. In any case, non-attending students will have to arrange a program with the teachers before registering for the exam.
Written and oral tests are taken in Italian, and they aim to verify the students' knowledge of the topics covered by the course. In particular, students' understanding of the literary and historical chronology of the two contexts, Portugal and Brazil, will be assessed. The tests also aim to verify the knowledge of literary texts studied, which must be related to the theoretical and conceptual tools that the course has provided.
The final grade is expressed in thirtieths, and the student has the right to refuse it.
International or Erasmus incoming students are invited to contact the teacher promptly. The examination procedures for students with disabilities and/or with DSA must be established with the teacher, in agreement with the competent Office.
Written and oral tests are taken in Italian, and they aim to verify the students' knowledge of the topics covered by the course. In particular, students' understanding of the literary and historical chronology of the two contexts, Portugal and Brazil, will be assessed. The tests also aim to verify the knowledge of literary texts studied, which must be related to the theoretical and conceptual tools that the course has provided.
The final grade is expressed in thirtieths, and the student has the right to refuse it.
International or Erasmus incoming students are invited to contact the teacher promptly. The examination procedures for students with disabilities and/or with DSA must be established with the teacher, in agreement with the competent Office.
L-LIN/08 - PORTUGUESE AND BRAZILIAN LITERATURE - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Russo Vincenzo
Professor(s)