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Portuguese Courses

Portuguese Language

Portuguese Literature

Graduate

Portuguese Language

Portuguese 101-1,2,3 – Elementary Portuguese

Introduction to grammar and development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Brazilian Portuguese, as well as the history and culture of Portuguese-speaking countries.

Prerequisite for 101-2: 101-1 or sufficient score on placement test; for 101-3: 101-2 or sufficient score on placement test.

Portuguese 111/112-1,2,3 – Intensive Portuguese

This three quarter, rapid-study course sequence emphasizes spoken Brazilian Portuguese. With six hours in class and two hours of independent laboratory work per week, it covers the content of a traditional first- and second-year language acquisition sequence in one academic year. Each quarter students must register for both 111 and 112, for which they earn two credits.

Prerequisites for 111-1 and 112-1: None. For 111-2 and 112-2: 111-1 and 112-1 or placement examination. For 111-3 and 112-3: 111-2 and 112-2 or placement examination.

Portuguese 115-1,2 – Portuguese for Spanish Speakers

For students proficient in Spanish. Comparative sociolinguistic and interactive approach to communicative competence emphasizing pronunciation, intonation, sentence structure, and patterns of spoken and written Portuguese.

Prerequisite: AP 4 or equivalent on the Spanish Language Placement Exam.

Portuguese 121-1,2,3 – Intermediate Portuguese

Based on the communicative approach, Port 121 helps students achieve an intermediate language level of proficiency through furthering development of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese will continue to be developed through meaningful cultural contexts. The course also offers insights into the history and culture of the Portuguese speaking countries in Europe, Africa and America.

Prerequisite: Port 101-3 or Placement

Portuguese 201-0 – Reading and Speaking

This course is designed to expand mastery in reading and speaking Brazilian Portuguese through select cultural videos, readings of literary cronicas, periodicals, and the Internet.

Prerequisite: 111-3/112-3, 115-2, 121-3 or sufficient score on placement examination.

Portuguese 202-0 – Reading and Writing Portuguese

Instruction in reading and writing expository and narrative prose. Emphasis on vocabulary, linguistic skills, and syntax appropriate to formal written Portuguese.

Prerequisite: 111-3/112-3, 115-2, 121-3 or sufficient score on placement examination.

Portuguese 303-0 – Topics in Advanced Portuguese

Advanced review of grammar concepts and idiomatic use of spoken and written Portuguese. Deals with a variety of topics in the context of Brazilian culture, history, literature, and current events. May be taken more than once for credit with change of topic.

Prerequisite: 202 or equivalent.

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Portuguese Literature

Portuguese 210-0 – Icons, Legends and Myths in Brazil

Taught in English

Representations of historical, literary, and popular figures who live in the national imagination. The course focuses on graphic materials, documentaries, film, theater, folklore, narrative fiction, and popular music. May include English and/or Portuguese discussion sections.

Prerequisite for Portuguese section: 201, 202, or sufficient score on placement exam. No prerequisites for English section.

Portuguese 380 – Contemporary Brazil: Literature and Film

Taught in English

A study of the literature and film produced in Brazil during the 21st century. With a focus on narrative forms, genres, and socio-cultural issues, this course is taught in English.

Portuguese 396 – Topics in Lusophone Cultures

Taught in English

Aspects of the literatures and cultures of Brazil, Portugal, and Lusophone Africa (Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Guine Bissao). Possible topics include Brazilian modernism, Lusophone African literature and film, race and sexuality in Brazilian literature, travel narrative, literature and ethnography, the Portuguese novel, nation and nationalism. May be repeated for credit with different topic.

Portuguese 399 – Independent Study

Taught in English

Independent reading under supervision. Consultation with director of undergraduate studies required.

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Graduate

SPANPORT 401 – Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory

Introduction to theoretical and critical traditions in Latin American and Peninsular traditions and elsewhere.

SPANPORT 410 – Topics in Early Modern Literatures and Cultures

Analysis of primary works and the major critical theories and debates regarding the literary and cultural production of the Early Modern period (Golden Age Spain and/or Colonial Latin America).

SPANPORT 410 – Introduction to Colonial Latin America: Narrative, History, Theory

This course offers a critical overview of the epistemological practices and ideological underpinnings that shaped the multi-faceted process of colonialism in what we call today Latin America. Focusing on indigenous, mestizo and European texts produced from the late fifteenth century to the late seventeenth century, we will explore the diverse power struggles, strategies of negotiation, and misunderstandings that underlie the production of the foundational textual knowledge in and about America.

Key to this course is the debate on the social and political consequences that the introduction of the European technology of writing had on Native American societies. A fundamental tool for colonial administration and Christian evangelization, alphabetic writing fostered both spaces of incorporation and of exclusion of indigenous peoples. We will analyze how writing shaped a particular notion of literary canon and of archive that tied knowledge to alphabetic writing, while framing indigenous peoples as objects to be analyzed, but not as subjects who produced knowledge. The colonial concept of literacy and the more recent postcolonial critical redefinitions of it will guide this approach.

This course also aims to frame the debates on colonial literature beyond the axis of literacy. For that, we will discuss how the concept of legibility can allow us to have a better understanding of the process of marginalization of native pre-Hispanic modes of inscription and communication, but also of native uses of alphabetic writing.

Going from colonial texts to theory, this course intends to familiarize students with major contemporary critical theories and debates that have led to a productive destabilization of terms and concepts such as indigeneity, indianness, discovery, conquest, colonization, empire, mestizaje, hybridity, and otherness.

Readings will be in English and Spanish. Class discussion will be in Spanish. All written work should be done in Spanish.

SPANPORT 415 – Studies in 19th Century Literatures and Cultures

Analysis of the discursive models of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Latin American and/or Iberian literary and cultural production. Topics vary. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

SPANPORT 420 – Studies in Twentieth-Century Literatures and Cultures

Analysis of movements, trends, and issues in twentieth-century Latin American, Iberian, and/or U.S. Latino literary and cultural production. Topics vary. May be repeated for credit with different topic.

SPANPORT 425 – Studies in Contemporary Literatures and Cultures

Analysis of recent movements, trends, and issues in recent Latin American, Iberian, and/or U.S. Latino literary and cultural production. Topics vary. May be repeated for credit with different topic.

SPANPORT 430 – Topics in Latino/a Literatures and Cultures

This graduate seminar introduces students to the major critical theories, approaches and debates regarding the literary and/or cultural production of U.S. Latino/as. Topics may include literary studies, popular culture, the media, and expressive arts within the frameworks of race, ethnicity, post-colonialism, border studies, cultural hybridity, identity formation, the politics of representation, gender, sexuality, social class, transnationalism, and globalization.

SPANPORT 430 – Sound(ing) Race, Gender and Class: Readings in Latinx Popular Music and Literature

This seminar will introduce students to Latinx cultural studies through an analysis of Latinx popular sonic traditions and literary texts. While musical traditions circulate hemispherically across Latin America, specific sounds and rhythms have been central sites for the construction of Latinx postcolonial identities. Salsa, corridos, cumbias, bachatas, and nortenas, for instance, have become expressive cultures that articulate the postcolonial experiences of diverse ethnic communities in Latino USA who have had limited access to high forms of art and literacy.The course will begin by introducing students to various theories about popular culture and music - concepts such as productive pleasure, listening as a critical act, and performance as the embodiment of resisting identities - that diverge from the aesthetic approaches to literary texts. What does it mean to listen rather than to read? How can we construct social meanings out of musical performances? How does the concept of voice relate to Latinx decolonial knowledge? By listening to musical performances, learning about particular musical genres, and reading literary texts that propose a critical dialogue with these sonic traditions, we will be able to expand not only our understanding of Latinx expressive and popular cultures as critical sites of resistance, but also to engage methodologically and theoretically in popular music as a site where sounds challenge the logocentric hegemony of reading in our production of knowledge. Course requirements include a class presentation, weekly written responses to the readings, and a final, 8-10 page original research paper.

SPANPORT 450 – Topics in Cultural Studies

This graduate seminar offers analysis of specific topics and debates within cultural studies and visual culture in Latin America and/or Iberia. Theme and focus vary. May be repeated for credit with different topic.

SPANPORT 455 – Comparative Studies in Latin American and/or Iberian Literatures and Cultures

Study of diverse works, figures, genres, and traditions from Latin America and/or Iberia that have engaged with related topics, forms, and/or currents from inside and outside these regions. Focus and materials will vary each year.

SPANPORT 480 – Topics in Latin American and/or Iberian Literatures and Cultures

This seminar course explores Iberian and Latin American cultural and political issues in relation to particular representational techniques, prominent literary traditions, subject-and national-making practices, and varied forms of writing literary texts. Topics vary.

SPANPORT 480 – Toward a Decolonial Critical Theory

This course will consider key texts in Frankfurt School Critical Theory alongside Decolonial Thought and Decolonial Feminism. Discussions will consider conception of critique at work in these texts in order to construct a decolonial critical theory of society. Readings will include texts by Gyorgy Lukacs, Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Anibal Quijano, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Santiago Castro-Gomez, Maria Lugones, Yuderkis Espinosa-Minoso, and Gloria Anzaldua.

SPANPORT 480 – Brazilian Modernism and Modernity: From Imitation to Anthropophagy and Beyond

In this course, we will discuss the anxieties created by notions of "imitation" at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century in Brazil, and the debates they created not only in the field of aesthetics, but also in the pseudoscientific discourse of sexology, criminology and psychopathology. We will be particularly interested in understanding how these debates on modernity and imitation of French culture evolved through the post-1922 Modernism avant-gardes, and the anthropophagic movement in particular, and the extent to which the latter represented a solution for the anxieties and aspirations of the writers of the period. We will focus on fictional works by Brazilian writers ranging from the abolition of slavery (1888) and the proclamation of the Republic (1889), to the 1920's avant-garde movements. We will also engage with contemporary theories of imitation and repletion Reading knowledge of Portuguese or Spanish is helpful, but not required.

Primary works will include: Raul Pompeia's O Ateneu (1888) [Trans. The Atheneum, ISBN: 0810130793); Aluizio de Azevedo's O Cortico (1890) [trans. The Slum, ISBN-10: 0195121872]; Machado de Assis' Dom Casmurro (1899) trans. Dom Casmurro: a novel ISBN-13: 978-0374523039; Joao do Rio's Vertiginous Life (1911); Oswald de Andrade (TBD); Mario de Andrade's Macunaima (1928).

Theoretical works may include works by Antonio Candido and Roberto Schwarz, Viveiros de Castro (Cannibal Metaphysics), Gabriel Tarde, Harold Bloom, Gilles Delleuze, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Rene Girard

SPANPORT 490 – Current Readings in Iberian and Latin American Criticism and Theory

This course will involve intensive student-driven reading and discussion on current topics in Latin American and Iberian theory and criticism. It will be run as a tutorial and an environment for intellectual exchange. It is encouraged as an alternative to independent studies. Students will compose their own reading lists, prepare an annotated bibliography and give weekly presentations.

SPANPORT 495 – Practicum in Scholarly Writing and Publication

Workshop intended to help students to design, research and write a scholarly article. Required for all graduate students in their second year.

SPANPORT 495 – Practicum in Scholarly Writing and Publication

This required seminar focuses on both theoretical and practical aspects of scholarly writing and publication. Reading and discussion, as well as writing assignments, aim to help students become more familiar with different ways in which they will be able to engage with other scholars and critics in their respective fields and areas of specialization. Students will take up the mechanics of scholarly publication, modes of scholarly research and reading, and genres of scholarly writing. The primary goal for each student will be to produce a draft of a publishable scholarly article, based on a paper written for a previous course. Other requirements include: a book review linked to the seminar paper; a formal abstract of the seminar paper; and written feedback on other students' writing. Seminar meetings will combine group discussion and oral presentations, workshop sessions focusing on written assignments, and, as needed, individual-tutorial meetings.

SPANPORT 496 – Dissertation Prospectus Writing Workshop

This course seeks to impart to students the knowledge necessary to answer the questions: what is a dissertation, and how do I write one? In the spirit of a workshop, we will work as a group to foster and cultivate the skill sets necessary to formulate and articulate an organizing question adequate to the charge of a significant, independent, multi-year research project. We will call this first stage the prospectus, and we will figure out what it is and how best to write it. We will try to distill multiple and often conflicting statements, expectations, and/or fears about what the dissertation is so we can effectively undertake its preparation and writing.

SPANPORT 499 – Independent Study

First-year graduate students are discouraged from enrolling in 499. Generally, students in the program take such courses in their second year. You must file a petition for Independent Study. You can download the form and instructions here Independent Study or speak to the graduate program administrator.

SPANPORT 570 – Teaching Assistantship and Methodologies

Tutorial, taken on an ungraded basis, arranged between individual students and faculty, which include attendance at advanced undergraduate course lectures and service in teaching assistantships.

SPANPORT 590 – Research

Independent reading and research.

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