Postcolonial studies in the space of Portuguese language

Recommended Prerequisites

Students should have solid training in their area of expertise and should, additionally, have enough references of a transversal character that allow them to follow a transdisciplinary programme. They should also possess a command of the Portuguese and of the English language that enables them to read texts of a high level of complexity (level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Teaching Methods

Teaching methodologies will combine oral presentation by the teacher with the close reading, commentary and debate of texts and other materials. Students will be invited to make oral presentations of different themes and materials as well.

Evaluation will consist of three main elements:

1)         One oral presentation in class – 30%

2)         One final essay, with two parts: a) oral presentation; b) written version – 50%

3)         Oral participation in class – 20%

Learning Outcomes

The aim of this course is to give students a broad knowledge of the specific political and cultural expressions of Portuguese colonialism and post-colonialism, between the end of the 19th century and today. Students should be able to discuss theoretical proposals, literary texts and other forms of artistic expression, in order to understand the main discursive practices that sustained and gave form to power relations, both from the side of the colonizers and of the colonized, taking into account dynamics of oppression and of resistance throughout different political contexts. We will pay special attention to the processes of construction of several identity projects (racial, ethnic, national, sexual), as well as to the discursive strategies of representation and imagination at work in these resistance mechanisms. Using a comparative methodology, students should acquire an awareness of the complexities and pluriversalities of powers in the colonial and the post-colonial context.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. The Portuguese Empire from the end of the 19th century to the 1960s:

1.1. Imperial discourses, practices, representations and fictions.

1.2. The politics of the Salazar regime and Portuguese colonialism in Africa

2. Colonialism and anti-colonialism: the place and role of nation, race, ethnicity and gender

2.1. African Liberation Movements and the representations of the African nations

2.2. The Portuguese Colonial War and the movements against it in Portuguese and African poetry and fiction

2.3. The Revolution of April 25th 1974

3. Post-Colonialities – from 1974 to today. New identitary fictions and representations

Head Lecturer(s)

Catarina Isabel Caldeira Martins

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Periodic or by final exam as given in the course information: 100.0%

Bibliography

Bethencourt, Francisco e Kirti Chaudhuri (orgs.) (1998), História da Expansão Portuguesa, Lisboa. Círculo de Leitores.

Chabal, Patrick (ed.) (1996), The Postcolonial Literature of Lusophone Africa, London: Hurst & Company.

Naro, Nancy P. et al. (eds.), Cultures of the Lusophone Black Atlantic. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ribeiro, Margarida Calafate (2004), Uma História de Regressos: império, guerra colonial e pós-colonialismo. Porto: Afrontamento.

Sanches, Manuela Ribeiro (0rg.) (2006), Portugal não é um país pequeno – contar o império na pós-colonialidade, Lisboa, Cotovia.