Portuguese Culture B1

Recommended Prerequisites

N/a

Teaching Methods

Brief lectures using multimedia presentations and text excerpts (chronicles, poems, stories, or novels, original or adapted); conversation about the topics addressed in order to check students’ understanding of the issues and to promote the comparison with the experiences of learners from different countries; individual or group production of short texts on the topics studied.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course students should (i) have an overview of the major events and figures of Portuguese culture, focusing on relations with several Others in Portuguese history; (ii) be able to situate them in time and space and (iii) compare them with their own national cultures in order to (iv) foster an informed intercultural dialogue; (v) be able to understand and interpret written and multimedia materials used as support or reference, and (vi) produce oral and written texts and summaries on the topics addressed.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Introduction to the major events and figures of Portuguese culture from a diachronic perspective and focusing on relations with several Others in Portuguese history:

– Iberian peoples before the formation of Portugal; Viriatus, resistance leader;

– Teresa, the Countess-Queen; Afonso Henriques and the independence of the kingdom;

– The myth of Inês de Castro;

– The Battle of Aljubarrota;

– Luís de Camões, the Discoveries and the building of the Portuguese Empire;

– Restoration of independence, António Vieira and the Fifth Empire;

– From the Ultimatum to the Republic;

– From the Estado Novo to the 25th of April Revolution; changes in the country and European identity;

– In the wake of Fernando Pessoa: Lusophony in a global world.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria do Rosário Prata Ferreira dos Santos

José Carlos Seabra Pereira

Assessment Methods

Continuous Assessment
Oral participation in class (spontaneous or prepared): 30.0%
Written assignments: 30.0%
Final test: 40.0%

Bibliography

Dias, Jorge. O essencial sobre os elementos fundamentais da cultura portuguesa. Lisboa : Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 2004.

Lourenço, Eduardo. O labirinto da saudade: psicanálise mítica do destino português. Lisboa: Gradiva, 2001.

Moura, Vasco Graça. Lusitana prai : ensaios e anotações. Porto: Asa, 2005.

Saraiva, António José. Para a história da cultura em Portugal. 2 vols. Lisboa: Gradiva, 1995.

Sena, Jorge de. Estudos de história e de cultura: 1ª série. Lisboa: Ed. da Revista "Ocidente", 1963.

Real, Miguel. Introdução à cultura portuguesa: séculos XIII e XIX. Lisboa: Planeta, 2011.