Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
A.Y. 2024/2025
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 can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The course is titled «A long century of revolutions. Dictatorships, liberations and memories: Portugal and Brazil between the end of the 19th century and the present day».
The course consists of the following two parts:
Part A (30 hours): Ideas, concepts and contexts of Portuguese history and literary history. Contemporary Era [Vincenzo Russo]
Part B (30 hours): Ideas, concepts and contexts of Portuguese history and literary history. Hiper-contemporary Era [Marianna Scaramucci]
The year 2024 marked a double anniversary: on the one hand the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution, which liberated Portugal from the Salazarist dictatorship, and on the other the 60th anniversary of the coup d'état that established the long civil-military regime in Brazil. Against this background, the two sections of the course propose to investigate, in parallel and in their interconnections, the two different historical and cultural contexts.
The aim of the course is giving a synoptic reconstruction of the fundamental stages of Portuguese and Brazilian literature.
Section A will study the history and literary history of Portugal from the second half of the 19th century to the present day. The Portuguese nation reconstructed from a literary point of view - in which the figures of Eça de Queirós and Fernando Pessoa emerge in all their disruptive novelty - is read in the European and international context and above all in its imperial dimension. From the dominant ideas of the modernisation of national culture, in correspondence with the so-called Third Portuguese Empire, the history of Portugal is that of the longest-lived and most anachronistic European colonial empire rising or resurgent in Africa, between the end of the 19th century and lasting for a wide arc of the 20th century, until its final overthrow with the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and subsequent decolonisation. In configuring between Realism and the late 20th century a dialectic between metropolis and colonies, Portuguese culture experienced alternating phases of modernisation and semi-peripheral backwardness, in a climate of agony and rebirth, until reaching its peculiar horizon in a late 20th century of impetuous Europeanisation. Between melancholic work and identity obsession, Portuguese finesecular literature - of this last finesecolo and millennium - questions the past and the present. In this context, strong and recognisable voices stand out, such as that of the writers José Saramago and António Lobo Antunes.
ection B will investigate the main cultural and historical processes that Brazil went through between the early 20th century and the present day. It will focus on the two great authoritarian phases that marked the 20th century, first the Estado Novo and then the Military Dictatorship. The ways in which Brazil interrogates itself, problematising its post-colonial identity at the hands of great interpreters such as Gilberto Freyre and Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda will be explored, while in the literary field the evolution of the national canon will be studied, starting with such indispensable voices as those of Graciliano Ramos, João Guimarães Rosa, Clarice Lispector and Jorge Amado. Finally, the course will come to some turning points of the narrow contemporary period, to highlight how literature has been able to liberate new 'histories' of the country from time to time: the black and female one, with Carolina Maria de Jesus and Marilene Felinto; that of the victims of the military dictatorship, with Bernardo Kucinski; that of the original peoples, with Davi Kopenawa Yanomami and Eliane Brum.
The course also includes student participation in seminars and conferences held by Italian and foreign scholars and writers.
The course programme is valid until September 2026. From the 2024 summer session it will only be possible to present the A.A. 2024-25 programme.
The course provides 9 credits. It is not possible to acquire only 6.
The course program is valid until September 2025.
The course consists of the following two parts:
Part A (30 hours): Ideas, concepts and contexts of Portuguese history and literary history. Contemporary Era [Vincenzo Russo]
Part B (30 hours): Ideas, concepts and contexts of Portuguese history and literary history. Hiper-contemporary Era [Marianna Scaramucci]
The year 2024 marked a double anniversary: on the one hand the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution, which liberated Portugal from the Salazarist dictatorship, and on the other the 60th anniversary of the coup d'état that established the long civil-military regime in Brazil. Against this background, the two sections of the course propose to investigate, in parallel and in their interconnections, the two different historical and cultural contexts.
The aim of the course is giving a synoptic reconstruction of the fundamental stages of Portuguese and Brazilian literature.
Section A will study the history and literary history of Portugal from the second half of the 19th century to the present day. The Portuguese nation reconstructed from a literary point of view - in which the figures of Eça de Queirós and Fernando Pessoa emerge in all their disruptive novelty - is read in the European and international context and above all in its imperial dimension. From the dominant ideas of the modernisation of national culture, in correspondence with the so-called Third Portuguese Empire, the history of Portugal is that of the longest-lived and most anachronistic European colonial empire rising or resurgent in Africa, between the end of the 19th century and lasting for a wide arc of the 20th century, until its final overthrow with the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and subsequent decolonisation. In configuring between Realism and the late 20th century a dialectic between metropolis and colonies, Portuguese culture experienced alternating phases of modernisation and semi-peripheral backwardness, in a climate of agony and rebirth, until reaching its peculiar horizon in a late 20th century of impetuous Europeanisation. Between melancholic work and identity obsession, Portuguese finesecular literature - of this last finesecolo and millennium - questions the past and the present. In this context, strong and recognisable voices stand out, such as that of the writers José Saramago and António Lobo Antunes.
ection B will investigate the main cultural and historical processes that Brazil went through between the early 20th century and the present day. It will focus on the two great authoritarian phases that marked the 20th century, first the Estado Novo and then the Military Dictatorship. The ways in which Brazil interrogates itself, problematising its post-colonial identity at the hands of great interpreters such as Gilberto Freyre and Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda will be explored, while in the literary field the evolution of the national canon will be studied, starting with such indispensable voices as those of Graciliano Ramos, João Guimarães Rosa, Clarice Lispector and Jorge Amado. Finally, the course will come to some turning points of the narrow contemporary period, to highlight how literature has been able to liberate new 'histories' of the country from time to time: the black and female one, with Carolina Maria de Jesus and Marilene Felinto; that of the victims of the military dictatorship, with Bernardo Kucinski; that of the original peoples, with Davi Kopenawa Yanomami and Eliane Brum.
The course also includes student participation in seminars and conferences held by Italian and foreign scholars and writers.
The course programme is valid until September 2026. From the 2024 summer session it will only be possible to present the A.A. 2024-25 programme.
The course provides 9 credits. It is not possible to acquire only 6.
The course program is valid until September 2025.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is planned for first year 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 Teams channel which can be accessed with the following code: 33zv5ev). Please refer to the Teams channel for the complete syllabus for lecture notes and other materials provided by the lecturers. For each section, specific critical essays on individual works or authors, or on general issues, will be made available on the channel. Below are the compulsory reading materials for the various sections.
Programma d'esame per studenti frequentanti:
Sezione A:
1) Roberto Vecchi-Vincenzo Russo (a cura di), La Letteratura Portoghese. I testi e le idee, Le Monnier, Firenze, 2017.
2) Bruno Crimi e Uliano Lucas, La Primavera di Lisbona, Vallecchi, Firenze, 1975.
3) Valeria Tocco, Breve storia della letteratura portoghese, Carocci, Roma, 2011.
Sezione B
4) Luciana Stegagno-Picchio, Storia della letteratura brasiliana, Torino, Einaudi, 1997 o edizioni successive. [Parti scelte]
4) Boris Fausto, Storia del Brasile, Fabula, Cagliari, 2011 [Parti scelte]
6) Anthology of critical and literary texts provided by the lecturers (Italian translation will also be made available).
Programma d'esame per studenti frequentanti:
Sezione A:
1) Roberto Vecchi-Vincenzo Russo (a cura di), La Letteratura Portoghese. I testi e le idee, Le Monnier, Firenze, 2017.
2) Bruno Crimi e Uliano Lucas, La Primavera di Lisbona, Vallecchi, Firenze, 1975.
3) Valeria Tocco, Breve storia della letteratura portoghese, Carocci, Roma, 2011.
Sezione B
4) Luciana Stegagno-Picchio, Storia della letteratura brasiliana, Torino, Einaudi, 1997 o edizioni successive. [Parti scelte]
4) Boris Fausto, Storia del Brasile, Fabula, Cagliari, 2011 [Parti scelte]
6) Anthology of critical and literary texts provided by the lecturers (Italian translation will also be made available).
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)