Learning objectives
The aim of the course is to explore the narrative paths followed by José Maria de Eça de Queirós, introducer of Realism in Portugal, and the intersection of these paths with the figure of the Brazilian critic and narrator Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. Consequently, the aim will be to provide a comparative analysis of the Portuguese and Brazilian realist movements and to reflect on the transition from Romanticism to Realism, on their respective cultural specificities, on the different assimilation of common influences, on cultural relations between Portugal and Brazil in the second half of the Nineteenth century. A particular focus will be given to the reconstruction of the construction procedures of the Queirosian narrative.
During the course the student learns to: - know the main authors, works, movements and aesthetic ideas of the Portuguese and Brazilian literature of the Nineteenth century, as well as the historical, political, cultural and artistic context in which these phenomena are situated; - understand and analyze poetic and narrative texts, which present complexity both in terms of formal characteristics and thematic-ideological contents; - formulate informed and motivated judgments, based on a careful decoding of the text, relating to complex literary and cultural phenomena; - become aware of the concept of literary text as a process, as a result of a path of choices and renunciations; be able to identify, discern, evaluate and comment on the characteristic elements of Portuguese and Brazilian cultures, with particular reference to the Nineteenth century.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
This year's course is entitled "Eça e Machado: percursos narrativos e discórdias". At the center of the course we place Eça de Queirós, the great Portuguese novelist, introducer of Realism and Naturalism in Lusitanian literature. The course will try to retrace the biographical and literary itinerary of Eça de Queirós and will conclude by comparing this author to another great novelist, Brazilian and contemporary of Eça, Machado de Assis, who was the protagonist of a controversy that involved the two authors regarding the reception of Eça's novel "O Primo Basílio". As we will see, Eça de Queirós was a Portuguese author with a large following in Brazil, in a period shortly after the political independence of the South American country in which Brazilian nationalistic pride was particularly stimulated.
The figure of Eça will be introduced and contextualized within the historical-literary period in which he appeared in the limelight and linking him to the group (the so-called "Geração de 70") to which he joined. We will then continue following Eça's bio-bibliographic path through the works he published in life - with particular regard to "Os Maias" (novel on which we will dwell more) - but also through those works that were published after his death (semi - posthumous and posthumous).
Full programme
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Bibliography
A. Campos Matos (org. e coord.), Dicionário de Eça de Queiroz, Lisboa: Caminho, 1993.
A. Campos Matos (org. e coord.), Suplemento ao Dicionário de Eça de Queiroz, Lisboa: Caminho, 2000.
Carlos Reis e Maria do Rosário Milheiro, A Construção da Narrativa Queirosiana, Lisboa: INCM, 1989.
João Medina, Eça de Queiroz e a Geração de Setenta, Lisboa: Moraes, 1980.
Carlos Reis, Introdução à leitura d'Os Maias, Coimbra: Almedina, 5.ª ed., 2000.
Alberto Machado da Rosa, Eça, discípulo de Machado?, Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fundo de Cultura, 1963.
João Cezar de Castro Rocha, Machado de Assis: por uma poética da Emulação. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 2013.
Teaching methods
Frontal lessons. The lectures will be supported by audiovisual contents: pictures of authors, texts, events and locations, documentaries, readings and videos regarding literary works, video lectures. To promote active participation in the course, various activities will be proposed, individual or in small groups, using the resources available in Elly. This material, also contained in Power Point presentations, is to be considered an integral part of the reference bibliography and will be regularly loaded on the Elly page of the course.
Assessment methods and criteria
A prerequisite to access the exam will be the passing of a written test on the knowledge of the literary texts presented during the course. The test will be divided into two parts: the first will focus on the texts from the Antologia Queirosiana; the second part will focus on knowledge of the summary and anthology of the novel "Os Maias", to which particular attention will be paid during the course. Students - attending and non-attending students - who will carry out asynchronous activities required during the course on the texts from the Antologia Queirosiana (according to the schedule and the modality indicated by the teacher), will be exempted from the first part of the preliminary written test. This will include open questions and multiple-choice questions and the result will be either “pass” or “fail” (no marks within the 0-30 range will be assigned).
Oral exam in Portuguese: free interview. The exam is evaluated with a scale of 0-30. The oral exam will test: - the knowledge of texts, authors, contexts studied in the course (weight of the item 10 pts.); - the ability to re-elaborate the subjects studied (weight of the item 7 pts.); - to propose personal in-depth analysis (weight of the item 7 pts.); - to obtain further information in order to interpret complex texts (weight of the item 3 pts.); - to develop personal evaluations (weight of the item 3 pts.). Students will fail the exam if they show to possess an insufficient knowledge of the basic contents of the course, or if they are not able to obtain further information to interpret complex texts, to develop personal evaluations. Students will obtain a result between 18-23/30 by demonstrating to possess a sufficient knowledge of the basic contents of the course and the ability to obtain further information to interpret complex texts, developing personal evaluations expressing themselves in an appropriate linguistic register. Students will obtain a result between 24-27/30 by demonstrating to possess a more than sufficient level (24-25/30) or a proficient level (26-27/30) in the above-mentioned competences. Higher marks (28-30/30) will be obtained by demonstrating a particularly good to excellent level in the above-mentioned competences. A mark of 30 cum laude is assigned in the case of reaching the maximum score on each item to which is added the mastery of the disciplinary lexicon.
Other information
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