Module Content and Indicative Topics 

This module introduces students to Portuguese literature in its changing historical contexts, so it also functions as an introduction to Portuguese history through literature. The first part is dedicated to the origins and first apogee of Portugal. From Galician-Portuguese poetry, the module proceeds to three sessions on the various aspects of Portugal’s rise to global power in the sixteenth century. We then explore António Vieira’s writing about indigeneity and poverty in seventeenth-century Brazil, which has been at the heart of a controversy about the memory of colonialism in Portugal. The first part of the module thus collects references to an apparently perennial tension in Portuguese literature and society between imperial glory on the one hand, and loss and culpability on the other. This tension, it is argued, is to some extent constitutive of the Portuguese literary tradition. But it also calls for a critique, as the second part of the module demonstrates. In this part students will read modern authors who, whilst reflecting upon the decay of Empire, are most notable for personal narratives of fragmentation and loss. We will encounter the poetry of Fernando Pessoa and a set of novels reflecting the main tensions traversing Portuguese society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Materials will be available in English translation. All secondary readings for the classes will be in English. 

The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class: 

 


	Medieval love poetry (cantigas) and the origins of Portuguese 
	
	
	Gil Vicente’s India Play and the beginning of Empire 
	

	Luís de Camões' Lusiads and the apogee of Empire 
	
	
	Fernão Mendes Pinto's "Peregrination" and the satire of Empire 
	
	
	António Vieira and the prophecy of universal Empire  
	
	
	Eça de Queiroz and the challenge of European modernity  
	
	
	Fernando Pessoa and the multiplication of selves  
	

	António Lobo Antunes and the malediction of Empire  
	
	
	José Saramago, the Elephant and the Portuguese Nobel Prize 
	
	
	Portugal and Europe today 
	
This module is taught in English and is open to students not specialising in literature. All materials are in English. If you have a knowledge of Portuguese, you will be encouraged to improve it by reading some materials in the original. If you have just started learning the language, or are taking no Portuguese at all, you will still pick up ideas, words and phrases that will be useful currency in the Lusophone world. 

Teaching Delivery 

This course consists of 10 lectures of 2 hrs each, with some group work and discussions in the second half of each session. Students are expected to read one literary work (e.g. a set of poems, a play, a short story, a novel) in advance for each class. Students will also be given critical literature to go through for each class. 

By the end of the module, you should be able to: 


	Identify key works, authors, styles and currents of Portuguese Literature 
	

	Contextualise Portuguese works historically 
	

	Outline the History of Portugal from its origins to this day 
	

	Analyse key formal aspects of a variety of literary genres 
	

	Perform close readings of literary texts 
	

	Conduct basic individual research into literary texts and their historical contexts Recommended Reading 
	
In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found in the UCL Library, but you may wish to purchase them to make the best of your participation in the course. Other materials will be available through Moodle: 


	Tom Earle, Stephen Parkinson and Claudia Pazos-Alonso, eds., Companion to Portuguese Literature, London, Tamesis Books, 2009 
	
	
	Eça de Queiroz, The City and the Mountains, tr. by Margaret Jull Costa, Dedalus Books, 2008. 
	
	
	Fernando Pessoa, A Little Larger than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems, tr. by Richard Zenith, London, Penguin, 2006. 
	
	
	António Lobo Antunes, A Land at the End of the World, tr. Margaret Jull Costa, Norton Reprints, 2012.  
	
	
	José Saramago, The Elephant’s Journey, tr. by Margaret Jull Costa, London, Vintage, 2008. 