Since the 1980s, Afro-Brazilian literature has acquired legitimacy in universities, evidenced by a growing number of academic studies, undergraduate and graduate programmes dedicated to it. Many of these studies address the concept of Afro-Brazilian literature itself. Some scholars reject it, for spreading a sense of political identity embodied by the word ‘black’. For others, it encompasses both literature about and by black people

For a third group, it is a more elastic theoretical concept, ‘capable of spanning the range of discursive boundaries that people use to express their Afro-descendant identity/ies in their literary works’ (Duarte, 2012, p. 106). In this module, we will analyse literary representations by and about Afro-Brazilians, from the mid-19th century to the 21st century, available in English translation. Literary texts (short stories, crônicas, poems, novels and film adaptations) will be studied in the light of major cultural movements, political events and theoretical approaches to literature and racial thought. Texts will be carefully selected to present a spectrum of its subjects, themes, and forms: from internal explorations in poetry; examination of the social, economic, and political circumstances of African-Brazilians; the lives of women in a sexist society, and experimentations with language. We will examine the relationship between race, gender, and nation in the context of Brazil’s abolition of slavery; Gilberto Freyre’s understanding of the Afro-Brazilian legacy, and key Brazilian modernist literary texts and films:






 A selection of poems by 19th-century writers Cruz e Sousa (1861-1898), Castro Alves (1847-1871), Luiz Gonzaga Pinto da Gama (1830-1882) and short stories by Machado de Assis (1839-1908) and Maria Firmina dos Reis (1825-1917)
 
 
 The (pre-)modernist tradition of negrismo exemplified in the poems and short stories by Jorge de Lima (1893-1953), Raul Bopp (1898-1984), Menotti del Picchia (1892-1988) and Monteiro Lobato (1882-1948), Solano Trindade (1908-1974)
 

 Lima Barreto’s novel The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma (1911)
 
 
 Maria Carolina de Jesus’s Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus (1960) 
 
 
 Bruno Barreto’s film adaptation of Jorge Amado’s novel Dona Flor and her two husbands (novel: 1966; film: 1976)
 
 
 Quilombhoje and Cadernos Negros: short stories and poems by Cuti, Conceicão Evaristo, Edimilson Pereira da Silva and Esmeralda Ribeiro
 
 
 Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund’s film adaptation of Paulo Lins’s novel City of God (novel: 1997; film: 2002)
 

 Contemporary Afro-Brazilian short stories by Itamar Vieira Junior, Augusto Dias, Sylvia Arcury, Ana Paula Lisboa, Geovane Martins, and Ana Maria Gonçalves
 
 
 Contemporary Slam poetry by, for example, Bixarte and Z2 
 
Method of delivery



Lectures will engage with a particular author, topic, theoretical issue, or historical moment and introduce the framework for the seminar discussion. Seminars will consist of close reading of set texts and small group activities. Primary texts are available in English and Portuguese. Portuguese UG students will be encouraged to read literary works in Portuguese. The lecturer will teach 100% of the course, though occasional guest lectures (authors, translators or external academics) will participate in the classes.



Aims of the module




 to introduce analytical, historical, critical and contextual approaches to the study of literary works by and about Afro-Brazilians from the mid-19th century onwards
 
 
 to cultivate a deep-rooted understanding of Afro-Brazilian literature and culture through key themes and authors
 
 
 to equip students with a wide range of ideas and a vocabulary to talk and write about Afro-Brazilian literature
 
 
 to reflect on poems, short stories, films and novels through a diachronic and comparative perspective that makes it possible to understand the diversity of Afro-Brazilian literature
 
By the end of the module students will be able to:




 contextualise and analyse prose fiction and poetry by and about Afro-Brazilians from the mid-19th century onwards
 
 
 demonstrate a clearer understanding of the history, culture, and socio-economic realities of Afro-Brazilians in the periods depicted by the literary texts and films
 
 
 reflect critically by comparing and contrasting two or more literary works from different historical periods
 

 express ideas, informed by suitable research and reflection, in cogent, well-structured essays and oral presentations
 
 
 work effectively with other students in groups and to sustain written and oral arguments coherently
 
 
 develop reading skills of Brazilian poetry in Portuguese or in translation
 
 
 reflect critically on the role of translation in the dissemination of literature works from peripheral countries
 
Bibliography


 A Festa Literária das Periferias, https://www.flup.net.br/flup-2020.
 
 
 Amado, Jorge, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Serpent’s Tail, 1999.
 
 
 Assis, Machado de, ‘Pai contra mãe’, A Chapter of Hats and Other Stories, Bloomsbury, 2008.
 
 
 Assis, Machado de, Machado de Assis afro-descendente: escritos de caramujo (antologia), edited by Eduardo de Assis Duarte, Rio de Janeiro, Pallas, Crisálida, 2007.
 

 City of God, Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, 2002.
 
 
 Colina, Paulo (ed.), Axé: Antologia da poesia negra brasileira, São Paulo: Global, 1982.
 
 
 Dona Flor and her two husbands, Bruno Barreto, 1976.
 
 
 Jesus, Carolina Maria, Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus, Penguin Random House,
 
 
 2003.
 

 Lima Barreto, Afonso Henriques de, The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma, Penguin Classics, 2014.
 
 
 Lins, Paulo, City of God, Bloomsbury, 2006.
 
 
 Literafro. O portal da Literatura afro-brasileira, http://www.letras.ufmg.br/literafro/.
 
 
 Callaloo, Autumn, 1995, Vol. 18, No. 4, African Brazilian Literature: A Special Issue (Autumn, 1995).
 
 
 Martins, Geovani, The Sun on My Head: Stories, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.
 

 Obsidian, Vol. 13, No. 1, Special Issue: Afro-Brazilian Literature (Spring/Summer 2012).
 
 
 Quilombhoje, Cadernos Negros: Os melhores contos, São Paulo: Quilombhoje / Ministério da Cultura, 1998.
 
 
 Reis, Maria Firmina dos, ‘A escrava’, Úrsula, Florianópolis: Editora Mulheres, PUC Minas, 2004.
 
 
 Reis, Maria Firmina dos, ‘The Slave Woman’, Afro-Hispanic Review, Spring 2013, Vol.32(1), pp. 205-218.
 
 
 Simpson, Paulo, Pedro Marques, Cristiane Escolastico Siniscalchi (eds.), Antologia da poesia romântica brasileira, Companhia Nacional Editora, 2008.
 

 Trindade, Solano, Cantares ao meu povo, São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1981.
 
 
 Trindade, Solano, Poemas antológicos de Solano Trindade, Nova Alexandria 2009.