Culture, Power and Resistance in the Portuguese-Speaking World

Learning Outcomes

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Appreciate the need to situate cultural representations in a specific historical context.
• Critically evaluate the different perspectives offered by studies of the history of the period covered by the course;
• Assess the different interpretations of the cultural expressions studied;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Select and organise relevant material for the construction of a coherent argument;
• Carry out independent research, which will prepare you for the research required for the investigative project in year three.
• Conduct critical analysis of different forms of cultural expression;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The relationship between political and social developments and cultural production in Brazil, Portugal and Lusophone Africa;
• The main social, political and cultural developments in Brazil, Portugal and Lusophone Africa during the long twentieth century;
• the relevance of gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class and globalisation to the cultures, societies and politics of the Lusophone world;
• Techniques for analysing a variety of cultural artefacts.

This course is designed to expand and deepen students’ knowledge of the cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world, bringing together written texts, visual and conceptual art, political materials, and cinema from twentieth-century Portugal, Brazil, and Lusophone Africa. In addition to building a specialised knowledge base on the recent histories, politics and cultures of these countries and regions, during the module students will sharpen their skills of analysis, critical thinking and debate, and learn how the themes, issues and processes that have defined the Lusophone world interconnect with wider global issues.

A particular focus during the module will be the notion of resistance, and as a class, we will explore the often hidden ways that ‘speaking truth to power’ has manifested in the Portuguese-speaking world — and what happens when movements designed to throw off oppression tip into authoritarianism themselves. We will use a range of critical approaches to draw connections between Lusophone nations and cultures and the rest of the world, allowing us to broaden our understandings of the ways that networks of power and resistance operate across the globe. Examples of possible topics include:

• the Modernist movements that revolutionised the cultural zeitgeist of Brazil during the first decades of the twentieth century
• the origins of the iconic urban landscape of the favela in Brazil, and how the experience of favela life reflected and shaped social hierarchies
• the clandestine movement against colonialism that emerged in Lusophone Africa in the 1960s, and the contested politics of using the coloniser’s language as a means of resistance
• the visceral methods of political repression used in Brazil by the Military Dictatorship, and how Brazilian artists used their work to bring the state’s violence to light
• the experience of living as a woman under the Portuguese New State
• how authority was reimposed in Lusophone Africa in the aftermath of independence, and the influence of the USSR
• the ethics of portraying poverty onscreen in the context of Brazil
• the culture of fear that dominated Mozambique as the post-independence war took hold, and how rural Mozambique became a Cold War theatre.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Group discussions

Learning activities include:

• Independent research
• Group discussion
• Essay writing

Innovative or special features of this module:

• The variety of cultural expression examined, which includes written texts, poetry, film, and visual art.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Levine, Robert M. The History of Brazil.

Gallagher, Tom. Portugal: a Twentieth-Century Interpretation.

J. Vincent. Culture and Customs of Brazil.

Fernando Arenas (2011). Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Calirman, Cláudia (2012). Brazilian Art under Dictatorship: António Manuel, Artur Barrio, and Cildo Meireles. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Robinson, Richard. Contemporary Portugal.

Summ, G. Harvey. Brazilian Mosaic: Portraits of a Diverse People and Culture.

Birmingham, David (2003). A Concise History of Portugal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rebecca J. Atencio (2014). Memory’s Turn: Reckoning with Dictatorship in Brazil. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Fausto, Boris. A Concise History of Brazil.

Assessment strategy

Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback

 - Participation in group discussion

 - Preparation for seminar presentation and essay.

Summative

Summative assessment description

Referral

Referral assessment description

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External