DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
SYLLABUS POR 328C- Introduction to Literatures and Cultures (#45285) FALL 2018 MEZ 1.212 (T-TH 9:30 – 11:00)
Dr. Sônia Roncador ([email protected]) Office hours: T-TH 11:00-12:30 (BEN 3.132)
Course Description:
This foundational course provides an overview of Brazilian, Portuguese and Lusophone African (Angolan, Cape Verdean, Guinean and Mozambican) cultures, from a multi-disciplinary perspective. This course seeks to offer a global knowledge of contemporary cultural and intellectual production (mainly essays, literature and film) about and from the Portuguese-speaking trans-national zone (aka, lusofonia). It is one main goal in this gateway course to get students acquainted with the field of cultural production in Portuguese, as well as the main themes and social challenges, which have mobilized artists and intellectuals from the region. Through a combination of lectures, in-class debates, and online discussion forums, the course also discusses some key historic moments which have defined the lusophone world, such as the region’s history of (post-)colonialisms, slavery and its deeply-ingrained cross-racial clashes.
Prerequisite: Portuguese 611D, 611S, 612, 312L, or 516. This course carries the Global Cultures flag.
Course Materials:
A wide range of essays, novel exerpts, stories and films will be made available via Canvas. The instructor will periodically provide some supplementary materials, such as newspaper articles, blogs, social media, youtube videos.
Grading:
Consistent attendance is mandatory. Since four absences are allowed during the semester, please reserve them for illness, religious holidays or other personal emergencies, and do not consider them “free” days. Absence from a class is not an excuse for missing homework assignments or tests. As it is stated by the Academic Policies and Procedures of the General Catalog, “A student who misses classes or other required activities, including examinations, for the observance of a religious holy day should inform the instructor as far in advance of the absence as possible, so that arrangements can be made to complete an assignment within a reasonable time after the absence” (http://www.utexas.edu/student/registrar/catalogs/gi05- 06/ch4/ch4g.html).
Students must read all assigned texts in advance and should be able to answer the instructor’s questions on the content and significance of the works; two or three questions will be posted on Canvas prior to each class period. Homework, class attendance, and participation in in-class discussion will comprise the class participation grade. Students should check with the instructor several times in the semester to make sure that they are meeting the course’s standards of participation in class.
Final grade will be based on: class participation (30%); 10 film reviews (30%); one mid-term exam (20%); one final short essay (20%). Instructor will use “plus” and “minus” grades for final course grades.
Foreign Language Policy:
Course will be taught in Portuguese. Although most of the readings will be in Portuguese; in very special cases, students may be able to write their three tests in Spanish or in English, upon instructor’s consent.
General Policies:
1.The tests cannot be taken before the designated dates. Make-ups are allowed only in cases of emergency. A student with an emergency should notify the instructor as soon as possible so that an arrangement can be made promptly and present documented evidence of the excuse.
2. Emergency is defined as: A. Serious illness or accident or B. Death, or serious illness, or accident in the students’ immediate family. For other circumstances, consult the instructor.
3. Instructor will make herself available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that a student may require as a student with a disability. Before course accommodations will be made, students will be required to provide documentation prepared by the Services for Students with Disabilities Office (SSD). To ensure that the most appropriate accommodations can be provided, students should contact the SSD Office at 471-6259 or 471-4641. For more information, read regulations for Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd.
4. Scholastic dishonesty: students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from The University of Texas. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced. For more information, visit Student Judicial Services (SJS) at http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/.
Course Schedule:
08/30: Introduction to the Course/ Syllabus presentation
THE LUSOTROPICAL EMPIRE
09/04: “Portugal Is Not a Small Country”: The Rise and Decline of the Portuguese Empire (powerpoint presentation); Luís de Camões’s “Canto I” (from Os Lusíadas) (fragments) 09/06: Welcome to the Luso tropics?: Acclimatization, mestiçagem and the myth of racial democracy as key elements to understand the imagination of the Portuguese Empire (film documentary “O povo brasileiro”—chapters 1-5)—Brazil —Film Critical Summary 1 09/11: Anonymous, “A Description of the Tupinambá” & Davi Kopenawa/Bruce Albert’s “Drawn Words” (testimonial literature), from The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman --Brazil 09/13: Luis Alberto Pereira’s Hans Staden—Brazil —Film Critical Summary 2 09/18: Levine & Crocitti’s “Slavery and its Aftermath” & Anonymous, “The War Against Palmares”; Gilberto Gil’s “Quilombo, o Eldorado Negro”--Brazil 09/20: Carlos Diegues’s Quilombo —Film Critical Summary 3 09/25: Post-Slavery Imperialism: Portuguese Dictatorship, Nationalism, and the Desire of Africa (from Cadernos Coloniais) 09/27: Margot Dias’s Filmes Etnográficos (1958-1961) (exerpts)—Portugal —Film Critical Summary 4 10/02: Assimilação and mestiçagem: negotiating whiteness in a black African country—Cape Verde 10/04: Germano Almeida’s O testamento do Senhor Napumoceno da Silva Araújo (exerpts/pp195-6) & Francisco Manso’s O testamento do Senhor Napumoceno (film)—Cape Verde —Film Critical Summary 5 10/9: Review for exam [led by pre-assigned groups] 10/11: Mid-Term Exam
LUSO-AFRICAN (POST-)INDEPENDENCE WARS AND THE NATIONAL QUESTION
10/16: Liberation and the Burden of Colonialism: African pro-independence revolutions; the global Cold War; post-colonial civil wars (powerpoint presentation) (co-taught with a guest speaker); Agostinho Neto’s “Adeus à Hora da Largada” (from A Sagrada Esperança) 10/18: Ivo Ferreira’s Cartas da Guerra—Portugal —Film Critical Summary 6 10/23: Mia Couto’s Terra Sonâmbula (Chapter 4); Teresa Prata’s film adaptation of Terra Sonâmbula—Mozambique —Film Critical Summary 7 10/25: Russell Hamilton’s “Lusophone Literature in Africa: Language and Literature in Portuguese-Writing Africa” 10/30: José Craveirinha’s “Ninguém” & Luis Bernardo Honwana’s “As mãos dos pretps” (from Nós Matamos o Cão Tinhoso)—Mozambique; José Luandino Vieira’s “A fronteira de asfalto” (from A cidade e a infância)--Angola 11/01: Portuguese Language as Ideology and Cultural Politics: Eliseu Mabasso’s “Lusofonia no contexto da bantofonia” (http://www.jornalnoticias.co.mz/index.php/primeiro-plano/18120-lusofonia-no- contexto-da-bantofonia-e-anglofonia-perspectivas-e-desafios-para-o-futuro- concl.html); José Craveirinha’s selected poems 11/06: Cont.: Rosa Cabecinhas’s “The Ortographic (Dis)Agreement and the Portuguese Identity Threat”
LUSOFONIA AND ITS DISCONTENTS
11/08: Fernando Arenas’s “(Post-)Colonialism, Globalization and Lusofonia, or the ‘Time-Space’ of the Portuguese-Speaking World” (http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vh0f7t9#page- 1)https://journals.openedition.org/configuracoes/2041#tocto1n3 Marilene Felinto (from Jornalisticamente Incorreto) 11/13: José Eduardo Agualusa’s “Carta a Madame de Jouarre—Olinda, Dezembro de 1876” (from Nação Crioula: A correspondência secreta de Fradique Mendes)—Angola 11/15: Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas’s Terra estrangeira (1995) (youtube)— Brazil —Film Critical Summary 8 11/20: Kalaf Epalanga’s O Angolano que comprou Lisboa (por metade do preço) (excerpts)--Angola 11/22: Thanksgiving 11/27: Sergio Trefaut’s Lisboetas (2004) (youtube)--Portugal —Film Critical Summary 9 11/29: The Sounds of Lusofonia: Routes of Music in the Lusophone World; Coraci Ruiz & Julio Matos’s Cartas para a Angola—Brazil/cross-cultural fusions —Film Critical Summary 10 12/04: Portagees, Hispanics, Latinos or “Others”?: the Portuguese-speaking communities in the US; Regina Rheda’s “The Santuctuary” (from First World Third Class) 12/06: Course Conclusion/General Review Take-home essay (due: TBA)