Sumários

Final Exam

14 Dezembro 2017, 10:00 • Helena Carvalhão Buescu

Review Session

12 Dezembro 2017, 10:00 • Helena Carvalhão Buescu

Review of the main texts and topics covered during the semester in preparation for the Final Exam.

Gonçalo M. Tavares: Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique (part 2)

7 Dezembro 2017, 10:00 • Helena Carvalhão Buescu

Notions of cruelty, evil, dystopias, biopolitics (Foucault) and panopticism (Bentham).

Discussion of the title of the novel around the concept of utilitarianism.

Development of the main character in the story: apprenticeship, fear and control. The importance of his German name and of the relationship with his father.

Relevance of the novel in the context of (contemporary) Portuguese literature.

Gonçalo M. Tavares: Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique (part 1)

5 Dezembro 2017, 10:00 • Helena Carvalhão Buescu

A dialogue between Tavares' novel and Goethe's Faust as well as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (as well as Ridley Scott's movie Prometheus): the idea of knowledge as a means for creation but also as a kind of transgression; apprenticeship and the possibility of overcoming the master's figure (reference to the Bildungsroman); tension between good knowledge and bad morals; power and vulnerability.

Poets of the 20th century

30 Novembro 2017, 10:00 • Helena Carvalhão Buescu

Reading and discussion of "The Complete Poetry of Marianne Moore" by José Tolentino Mendonça; "We Will Rise" and "25th April 1974" by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen; "Green God", "Urgently" and "Words" by Eugénio de Andrade.

Main topics: transcendence and the collecting of things "chaotically listed" (Mendonça); hope against repression and fear (Andresen); a rewriting of a lyrical poem (pastoral tradition) by Camões, language and words always involved in a dual activity, between writing and reading, and as our only way of access to reality (Andrade).

Oral presentations: Pauline Olèon, Robin De Wolf, Cristina López, Lena Sabatke, Marit Versantvoort.