Fall 2004

POR 375 • Luso-Brazilian Literature

Course Description

Nowadays there is a near consensus among critics and intellectuals that literature’s status in relation to other discourses, i.e. its “superiority”, has changed drastically. In contemporary culture, where market and aesthetic values have been indistinctively applied both to “high” and “popular” arts, separating literature from its “inferior” counterparts, such as popular music, cinema, and television, has proven highly problematic. One of the main goals in this course is to examine the dialogue between literature and mass media in twentieth-century Brazil. While introducing a variety of major fictional texts, popular music, films and television programs (esp. soap-operas), this course will examine such topics as the impact of mass media on literature (and vice-versa), television and cinema as leitmotivs in fictional writings, the adaptation of literature into films and television soap-operas, poetry and Bossa-Nova, and the contemporary novelist as screen writer. Finally, in this course we will analyze Brazilian society as reflected in both literature and mass media. By addressing cultural production in a more encompassing way, we hope ultimately to reveal the regional, social and cultural diversity of Brazilian society.

Grading Policy

class participation (20%) 5 quizzes (50%) 1 take-home exam (final) based on theoretical materials pre-assigned by the instructor (30%).

Texts

Textual material: Xerox Packet 1 (Primary Readings) Xerox Packet 2/E-Reserve (Secondary Readings) Audio-visual material: A selection of films, TV videos, and music (the films and videos will be seen at the UGL Media Center, at the most convenient time for all students)

back