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Portuguese Literature

Module description

Portuguese literature provides for an insight into how writers configure their country’s history and identity, as well as Portugal’s place within European cultural phenomena such as Romanticism, the Decadence and the Avant-garde. In this module, you will study three canonical Portuguese texts – Garrett’s drama, Sá-Carneiro’s novel and Pessoa’s poetry – and discover the distinctive and original emphases of the Portuguese literary imagination.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to introduce you to canonical texts in Portuguese literature –Garrett’s drama, Sá-Carneiro’s novel and Pessoa’s poetry-, their perspectives on Portuguese cultural and political history and the incorporation of Portuguese into broader European cultural movements within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Garrett’s drama is set at time of the occupation of Lisbon by the forces of Philip II of Spain, and the play has patriotic implications in the context of the loss of Portuguese independence as well as for Garrett’s own age. The novel is cosmopolitan and experimental, a product of the new aesthetic practices dominant in Europe at the turn of the century, with significant implications for the representation of love and gender definition in the European Decadence. Pessoa wrote original poetry under his own name and in that of three ‘heteronyms’, each of which is given his own personal history, poetic style and vision, and a discrete and coherent aesthetic approach. Study of these prescribed texts will provide for an insight into how Portuguese writers configure their country’s history and identity, the prevalent entailments of such a configuration, and the contribution of Portuguese to the articulation of European cultural phenomena such as Romanticism, the Decadence and the Avant-garde, stressing the distinctive and original emphases of the Portuguese literary imagination. Particular attention will be given to the literary representation of the city of Lisbon, its cultural status, its traditions and its perceived legacy.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of selected works of Portuguese literature and an understanding of their significance in the broader national and European context in which they were produced.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 2. After initial input from the course tutor, apply and evaluate critical approaches to the material under analysis independently.
• 3. Use a range of critical terminology, applying it to independently researched material as well as to material introduced by the course tutor.
• 4. Access and use critically printed and, where appropriate, electronic learning resources identified as useful by the course tutor; find independently and evaluate critically other relevant resources.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of a large body of material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written argument of some complexity.
• 6. Undertake defined learning activities with a measure of autonomy, asking for guidance where necessary.

Syllabus plan

While content may vary from year to year, it is expected that the module will cover:

• An introduction to Portuguese literature, its imaginative emphases and its European dimension
• Almeida Garrett, Frei Luís de Sousa
• Mário de Sá-Carneiro, A Confissão de Lúcio
• Fernando Pessoa, Anthology of Poetry

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Garrett, Almeida. Frei Luís de Sousa (Porto: Porto Editora, 1998)
• Pessoa, Fernando. Antologia Poetica (Santo Andre: Editora Casa da Palavra, 2013)
• Sá-Carneiro, Mário de. A Confissão de Lúcio (Lisbon: Livraria Bertrand, 2011)
• Livermore, H.V. A New History of Portugal, second edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE-

Key words search

Portuguese literature, Lisbon, Romanticism, Decadence, Avant-garde