1. To give the students definitions of the multiple meanings of the term "culture", as well as to identify the "affiliations" the latter has known across the centuries;
2. To depict the culture of the West taking into account both its continuity and the discontinuity which comes to the fore when one looks at it from the point of view of the distinct cultural periods which have shaped it;
3. To acquaint the students with the major theories that have revolved around the concept of "culture" since the 19th century, as well as with the confrontations between discourse and practice which such theories usually entail. The competences the students have to develop are: the capacity to recognise and ascertain the several meanings of the term "culture", as well as to relate them to the theories from which they derive; the capacity to identify the culture of the present time and to relate it to that of each of the historical periods of the past that most have conditioned it.
The syllabus has been divided in three modules. Module (1) is titled "Definitions". It embodies the diverse ways in which the several meanings of the term "culture" are presented and made clear to the students, as well as contextualised and related to the two main understandings of that term which nowadays struggle against each other (the humanistic one and the anthropological one). Module (2) is titled "Cultural Paths". It embodies the several approaches and strategies by means of which the students become acquainted with the birth, growth and dissolution of each of Western Culture's major periods. Module (3) is titled "Theories". It encapsulates the three main texts ("Culture and Anarchy", "On the Aesthetic Education of Man", "On the Future of our Educational Institutions") which are expounded to the students as part and parcel of the modern grounding of the interpretation of culture as "Bildung".
Module (1) is taught by means of the transmission of the teacher's own knowledge, the analysis of charts which make clear the ways in which the mind is capable of "building" the concept of "culture", and of the analysis of texts that elucidate the several meanings of the term "culture". Module (2) is taught by means of the transmission of the teacher's own knowledge, the study of maps and charts which facilitate the knowledge of the West's cultural watersheds, and of the reading and analysis of texts that assess the major turning points of the West's cultural history. Module (3) is taught by means of the analysis and elucidation of the most telling passages of the texts which define its scope and purposes.
ARNOLD, Matthew. Culture and Anarchy. In: —. The Complete Prose Works. Ed. R."H. Super, Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 1992, vol. 5, pp. 85–229.
GUARDINI, Romano. O Fim da Idade Moderna – Em Procura de uma Orientação (Das Ende der Neuzeit – Ein Versuch zur Orientierung) Trad. M."S. Lourenço, Lisboa, Edições 70, 2000.
NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. Über die Zukunft Unserer Bildungsanstalten. In: —. Werke. Ed. Giorgio Colli & Mazzino Montinari, Berlin, de Gruyter, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 641–752.
SCHILLER, Friedrich. Sobre a Educação Estética do Ser Humano numa Série de Cartas (Über die Ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen, in einer Reihe von Briefen). Trad. Teresa Rodrigues Cadete, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional–Casa da Moeda, 1994.
SILVA, E."J. Moreira da. Notas Para a Redefinição e Recuperação do Conceito de Cultura.Ponta Delgada, Edição do Autor, 2010.
STOREY, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction 5. ed., Harlow, Pearson, 2009.
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