Course finder

Semester 2

Black Hydropoetics: The Sea in Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literature and Culture (ELCH09033)

Subject

European Languages and Cultures - Hispanic Studies

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

In order to be eligible to take 3rd/4th Year Options, Visiting Students should have the equivalent of at least two years of study at University level of the appropriate language(s) and culture(s).

Course Summary

The course explores literature and music to examine the role of the ocean in counter-hegemonic discourses in Portuguese. The aim is to analyze and compare the strategies used by Luso-Afro-Brazilian authors to question Portuguese imperial representations traditionally associated with the sea. Discussions will engage with specific questions of nationality, borders, identity, race, migration, gender and sexuality, religion, language, hybridization, politics and the environment. This course will introduce major topics in Luso-Afro-Brazilian literature and culture. Background information and relevant aspects of critical theory will be examined during seminars. The course is taught in English using representative works in translation. Students have the option to use the source texts in the original language. Classes will be a mixture of lecture, seminar and student-led discussion.

Course Description

The idea of Portuguese exceptionalism has been intrinsically linked with the sea, as the profuse literary and artistic representations of the maritime expansion well show since the 15th century. The Portuguese dictatorial regime Estado Novo appropriated this association, assimilating it to its nationalistic and imperialistic discourses. This assimilation poses a problem for the relationship between Lusophone authors and the sea, given its imperialistic symbolism. The course aims to examine the role of the ocean in counter-hegemonic discourses in Portuguese by taking an ecocritical approach. Our point of departure will be We will depart from Joshua Bennets critical work on Afro-American writings on nature and on his concept of Black Hydropoetics in particular to analyze how counter-hegemonic discourses have turned to the dark depths of the ocean, expressing a sense of belonging to the oceans animate and inanimate beings. Such identity configurations blur the limits between the human and non-human and question notions of border, nationhood, gender and race, among others. Such counter-hegemonic discourses standare in stark contrast to hegemonic representations of the ocean as a monolith or as a surface. The course is divided into three modules, covering works from Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa. The primary readings consist of one sixteenth century Portuguese epic poem and selected poems published in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by different Lusophone authors, covering both the pre and post dictatorship periods. For each module, a selection of musical themes will also be discussed to assess similarities and differences in the representations of the ocean in popular culture. The course is taught in English using representative works in translation. Students with the appropriate ability in the Portuguese language have the option to engage with the source texts in the original language. The course runs for two hours per week (seminar) and will be delivered in English. Classes will be based on the primary readings and will include audio-visual aids, such as PowerPoint presentations. Preparation for seminars requirerequires individual readings, directed secondary readings, individual and group presentations. Seminars will involve group discussion, close reading, and reporting back on preparatory individual/ALG work. The topics in question will allow the student to think and write comparatively, and to combine detailed textual analysis with theoretical debate and a considerationconsideration of historical and cultural factors. The course is assessed by two pieces of written work: one commentary and one essay in English or Portuguese, as preferred.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

view the timetable and further details for this course