graduate seminar

SPA 2945 Exile and Diaspora in Luso-Hispanic Literature and Film (Fall 2014)

This course analyzes the evolution of the story of exile and diaspora in various filmic and writing practices as well as the transformation of narratives by the experience of displacement. How to tell/recount an experience so complex? Or, as per Julio Cortázar, what impact do exile and diaspora have in the writing process? How are the experiences of exile and diaspora articulated? To what extent do attempts to relate deterritorialization / reterritorialization lead to a renewal of narrative? Authors, filmmakers and theorists studied include: Benedetti, Cortázar, Kogut, Rivera, Zambrano, Blanchot, and Bataille, among others.

undergraduate

PRT 340 Diaspora and Exile in Literature (Fall 2014)

The experience of displacement, accounts of exile and of the diaspora, has given rise to a renewal of narrative. The course examines the parameters of this new narrative with special focus on the Luso-Brazilian literature and the themes of saudade, desterro and dystopia.

PRT 345 New Narratives: From Orality to New Media (Winter 2015)

The evolution of narrative practices from orality to text based literature and the advent of the digital revolution as storytelling moves from literacy to so-called post-literacy. The course examines, with examples drawn from Luso-Brazilian literature how storytelling and reading change in non-linear narratives.

PRT 255 The Brazilian Puzzle: Culture and Identity (Winter 2015)

Taught in English, this course examines the historical and cultural contexts of Brazilian identity. The impact of colonial history on issues such as race, religion and regionalism is explored. The course focuses on the 19th and 20th centuries: Positivism, Modernism, the Anthropophagous Movement, music and Cinema Novo are discussed.

PRT 458 The Luso-Brazilian Short Story (Winter 2014)

The development of the Luso-Brazilian short story. Examination of theories of the genre as they relate to short stories of Machado de Assis, Eça de Queiroz, Graciliano Ramos, João Guimaraes Rosa, Clarice Lispector and others.

PRT 258 Introduction to Luso-Brazilian Studies (Fall 2013)

The introductory study of literary texts and consideration of the various ways authors express and situate themselves in culture. Semiotics, gender, the literary canon, advertising, the nature of literary language, and cinema.