Contemporary Portuguese Culture

Objectives

To deepen the understanding of Portuguese national identity and culture, its past and its relation to contemporaneity;

To recognize the core aspects of contemporary Portuguese Culture;

To deepen and reflect about the various contemporary positions about Portugal’s place in Europe, both present and future;

To develop the capacity to link diverse knowledge and motivate critical thinking.

Program

1. Questions of national identity: approaching the Portuguese case.

1.1 Political factors: State, territory and Constitution.

1.2 Socio-cultural factores: language, religion, ethnicity, history, myths and art.

2. The Portuguese way of being: the portrayal of Portuguese Culture according to contemporary authors.

2.1 Fernando Pessoa, the people of “heróis adiados” and the drive of the “Quinto Império” in Mensagem.

2.2 Jorge Dias and the “elementos fundamentais da Cultura Portuguesa”.

2.3 The psychoanalytical reading of Eduardo Lourenço. The structural messianisms and the lost opportunities.

3. Portugal vis-à-vis the Iberian Peninsula and Europe: hostility or integration? A jangada de pedra by José Saramago.

Teaching Methodologies

Classes will be theoretical-practical, with a part destined to exposition and a practical part in which there will be in-depth discussion of the texts being commented. During the one-on-one time allotted to students, they will be helped in order to facilitate the learning process, namely by clarifying issues and by providing them with guidelines about study and research methods as well as the best way to carry out scientific academic papers.

Bibliography

COELHO, António Borges, «A identidade portuguesa no dealbar do 3º milénio» in ROSAS, Fernando, e ROLLO, Maria Fernanda (coord.) (1998),

Portugal na viragem do século – Os portugueses e os desafios do milénio, Lisboa, Pavilhão de Portugal - Expo'98/Assírio e Alvim; pp. 65-97.

LOURENÇO, Eduardo [1988], O labirinto da saudade - Psicanálise mítica do destino português, Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores.

MATTOSO, José (1998), A identidade nacional, 1ª ed., col. «Fundação Mário Soares», Lisboa, Fundação Mário Soares/Gradiva.

PIRES, António Machado (1997/98), «A identidade portuguesa», Arquipélago (Línguas e literaturas), nº XV, Ponta Delgada, Univ. dos Açores; pp.319-330.

_____ (1994), «O carácter português», Anais do Instituto Superior Naval de Guerra, nº 8, Lisboa, Inst. Sup. Naval de Guerra; pp. 35-53.

SILVA, Augusto Santos e JORGE, Vítor Oliveira (orgs.) (19939, Existe uma cultura portuguesa?, Porto, Ed. Afrontamento.

SMITH, Anthony (1997), A identidade nacional, Lisboa, Gradiva.