Azorean Literature

Objectives

1. Learn about Azorean Literature, from a historical and aesthetic perspective.

2. Recognise the main paths in its development.

3. Contextualise local literary works within the broader field in which they are integrated.

4. Study authors who best represent Azorean literary expression.

5. Identify the aesthetic particularities of those authors.

6. Understand the nature of literature as an individual practice capable of shaping a collective future.

7. Perfect literary competence.

8. Develop a critical reflection on literature within its socio-cultural context.

Program

1. The Azores in the 19th century, the promotion of schooling, the introduction of the press and the formation of a public and of literary taste.

2. The transition to the 20th century: the Horta story-tellers between the end of century aesthetics and the «faithfulness to place»; the poets: from the «joyful irony» of Parnassianism (Garcia Monteiro) to «Atlantic solitude» and symbolism (Roberto de Mesquita).

3. Traversing the 20th century: regionalism and the lesson of the various modernisms (and individualist, solitary offshoots).

4. Some topics: permanence and wanderings; exile and dispossession; the great narrative of exile to the west.

5. The study of authors whose work best reflects, aesthetically, the «insular condition».

Teaching Methodologies

To meet the objectives proposed, classes will combine theory and practice, connecting new theoretical content with the study of works (or sufficiently exemplificative excerpts). The theoretical texts will be discussed in class after prior required reading; the literary texts will be the object of analysis and commentary by the students, followed by deeper examination and synthesis in class. The students will be encouraged to write small individual assignments analysing and commenting on texts, so as to apply the knowledge acquired.

Bibliography

ALMEIDA, Onésimo Teotónio, Açores, Açorianos, Açorianidade: Um Espaço Cultural, 2.ª edição. Angra do Heroísmo, Instituto Açoriano de Cultura, 2011.

BATISTA, Adelaide, João de Melo e a Literatura Açoriana, Lisboa, Publ. Dom Quixote, 1993.

BRASIL, Luiz António de Assis (2003), Escritos Açorianos. Lisboa, Edições Salamandra.

FREITAS, Vamberto, O Imaginário dos Escritores Açorianos, 2.ª edição. Ponta Delgada, Letras Lavadas Edições, 2013.

LOURENÇO, Eduardo, «Da Autonomia como Questão Cultural», A Autonomia como Fenómeno Cultural e Político, Angra, Instituto Açoriano de Cultura, 1988, pp. 51-62.

MENESES, Avelino de Freitas de, Antigamente era assim! Ensaios de História dos Açores. Ponta Delgada, Publiçor, 2011

PIRES, António M. B. Machado, Páginas sobre Açorianidade. Ponta Delgada, Letras Lavadas Edições, 2013.

REIS, Carlos (coord.), Literatura Portuguesa Moderna e Contemporânea. Lisboa, Universidade Aberta, 1990