OVERVIEW

Literatura and memory

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AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course will examine the variety of literary and artistic expressions in a XXth century  perspective of Fernando Pessoa and the Portuguese Modernism. The course will focus on on specific topics such as the poetics of "eteronimia", and its influences on the modern aestethics .

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

An introduction to the african literatures written in portuguese and their relationship with portuguese and brazilian history, culture and society from the origin to modernity, with a special focus on the case studies of Angola and Cape Verde and the angolan writer Luandino Vieira.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures and seminars in italian and portuguese. Attendance is heartily recommended. Students who are unable to attend will have to study some supplementary material

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course includes a theoretical part focused on memory as opposition to oblivion starting from the reflections of Paul Ricoeur, on the historically framed relationship between literature and memory (the text as memory and as resistance to absence) and on the relationship between individual memory (the writing of nostalgia) and collective memory (the depositary writer and witness of the story telling). In the second part of the course these concepts will be analyzed in the light of the literary text (of Portuguese and Brazilian context) produced from the end of the 19th century to the present day. Some examples: the memory of the disease (José Cardoso Pires); the intertwining of family epic and twentieth-century history from the Shoah to emigration to Brazil (Michael Laub); the critical reinterpretation of Portuguese colonialism (Isabel de Figueiredo)

This teaching is part of the research project “MemWar. Memories of Wars and Traumas of the Twentieth century” of the LCM Department (https://memwarunige.hypotheses.org/). Students are warmly invited to participate in the theatrical laboratory on the memory of wars (for info and registration https://corsi.unige.it/8740/news/5566-laboratorio-teatrale-narramondo-per-progetto-memwar). Participation in the theater workshop entitles you to 3 CFUs.

Teaching’s keywords: Memory: Cultural memory; Individual memory; Collective memory; Shared memory, Postmemory; Places of memory; Cultural texts

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ricoeur, Paul, La memoria, la storia, l’oblio, Milano, Raffaello Cortina, 2003

Antonio Prete, Nostalgia – Storia di un sentimento, Milano, Raffaello Cortina, 1992

Luciana Stegagno Picchio, Storia della letteratura brasiliana, Torino, Einaudi, 1997

AA.VV, (a cura di V. Tocco), Breve storia della Letteratura portoghese, Pisa, Carocci

Machado de Assis, Memorie dell’aldilà, Milano, Rizzoli, 1991

Chico Buarque, Latte versato, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2010

José Cardoso Pires, De profundis, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1998

Isabel Figueiredo, Quaderno di memorie coloniali, Perugia, Urogallo, 2018

Michel Laub, Diario della caduta, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2014

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Class schedule

PORTUGUESE LITERATURE AND CULTURE

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam will be a conversation in Italian or Portuguese and will consist of questions on the whole course (https:// servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami).

Exam schedule