Encounters with Bodies in Lusophone Cultural Narrative

Module overview

Based on written texts, films and visual materials from and about Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, this course is intended to show you the cutting edge of cultural production and research from the Portuguese-speaking world, while remaining anchored in the essential themes and trends of the global twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. To this end, the course takes one thematic mainstay of the Portuguese-speaking world during the last century — the body — and uses it as a unifying motif and point of departure for study of a diverse, unique and comprehensive range of themes. Alongside the set primary texts for the course, during lectures you will be introduced to a range of critical frameworks through which those texts can be understood, such as queer theory, theories of photography, cultural disability theory, and theories of colonisation and postcolonial identity. This aspect of the course will allow you to forge connections between the Portuguese-speaking world and wider global thought, as well as offering you introductory starting points for potential future study. In addition, applications and evaluations of these frameworks will provide the basis for assessed blog posts, which will allow you to develop your skills in writing for a lay audience, alongside the more typical skills of critical thinking, cultural analysis, and academic writing.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

critically evaluate and analyse cultural texts and secondary sources, to a specialised level
make use of libraries, archives and online resources to access relevant information
adhere to guidelines and deadlines
plan and organise your learning, exercising independence and initiative
communicate your ideas in clear, concise and sophisticated writing

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

apply a specialised level of knowledge, understanding and analysis critically to different topics related to the Portuguese-speaking world
select, synthesise and focus information about the Portuguese-speaking world from a variety of primary and secondary sources, to a specialised level
engage at a specialised level with subject matter and opinion related to the Portuguese-speaking world
define, present and exemplify specific concepts related to the Portuguese-speaking world, to a specialised level

Knowledge and Understanding

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

specific forms of cultural expression in the modern Portuguese-speaking world
the similarities and dissimilarities between the cultures and societies of the Portuguese-speaking world and your own culture
specific aspects of the histories, cultures and politics of the Portuguese-speaking world
specific events and trends in the twentieth-century history of the Portuguese-speaking world

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching and learning methods include: – lectures introducing basic concepts and context – seminars, where we will discuss cultural texts and concepts both as a whole and in small groups – independent reading, thinking and writing – one-to-one tutorials.

Study time
Type	Hours
Preparation for scheduled sessions	50
Wider reading or practice	38
Lecture	11
Seminar	11
Completion of assessment task	40
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

Journal Articles

Mbembe, Achille (2003). ‘Necropolitics’, trans. by Libby Meintjes, Public Culture. , 15(1), pp. 11-40.

Santos, Boaventura de Sousa (2002). Between Prospero and Caliban: Colonialism, Postcolonialism, and Inter-identity. Luso-Brazilian Review, 39(2).

Textbooks

Scarry, Elaine (1985). The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kristeva, Julia (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, trans. by Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.

Fausto, Boris (2014). A Concise History of Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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

hooks, bell (1981). Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism. Cambridge: South End Press.

Batchen, Geoffrey (2012). Picturing Atrocity: Photography in Crisis. London: Reaktion.

Sontag, Susan (1990). On Photography. New York: Anchor.

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

Butler, Judith (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York: Routledge.

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

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Blog Post	40%
Essay	60%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Blog Post	40%
Essay	60%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Blog Post	40%
Essay	60%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External