POBS 0105. Accelerated Portuguese.

This course serves as an accelerated introduction to Portuguese, one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It is also an introduction to the diverse cultures of Portuguese-speaking societies. Specifically, the course will look into the ethnic, racial, social, and gender diversity in these cultures. Designed for students who have no prior knowledge of Portuguese, POBS 0105 meets five hours per week.

POBS 0280. Mapping Food, Eating Meaning, Making Community: A Welcome to the Lusophone world.

This course explores the Lusophone world vis-à-vis the local, regional, and national culinary traditions of Brazil, Portugal, Luso-Africa, and Goa. Through a broad selection of cultural materials (music, film, television series, short stories, poems, visual art, etc) about cuisine in the Lusophone world. Students will gain introductory knowledge of Portuguese through brief instructional lessons. The class meets every 3-4 weeks to prepare and cook a class meal based on regional cuisines. This course focuses on creating: from a class zine to creative projects. The class will be taught in English with elements of Portuguese. No previous Portuguese language experience required.

POBS 0281. Digital Dreams: Brazil Cinema on the World Stage.

This course focuses on contemporary Brazilian cinema. New Brazilian Cinema emerged in the mid-nineties to international critical acclaim with films such as Central Station (Salles 1998) and City of God (Meireles/Lund 2002). Subsequently, Brazilian cinema has contended at the Oscars with Neighbouring Sounds (Filho 2012), The Second Mother (2015), documentaries: The Edge of Democracy (Costa 2019), Waste Land (Walker 2010), and controversial non-selected Aquarius (Filho 2016). This course posits Brazilian in its context socio-historical context and broaches social and political questions such as race, gender, urban space... Class is conducted in English and films have English subtitles.

POBS 0400. Writing and Speaking Portuguese.

Designed to improve the students' ability in contemporary spoken and written Portuguese. Using such cultural items as short stories, plays, films, videos, newspaper and magazine articles, and popular music, students discuss a variety of topics with the aim of developing good communication skills. Attention also given to developing writing ability. A systematic review of Portuguese grammar is included. Prerequisite: POBS 0105, or POBS 0110, or placement. Conducted in Portuguese. Completion of POBS 0400 is the minimum requirement for participation in the Brown-in-Brazil Program. Offered every semester.

POBS 0630A. The nature of things: an object-oriented approach to Lusophone studies.

This course addresses aspects of history, culture, politics, literature, and the arts in seven Portuguese-speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The course is designed to give students a hands-on approach to the study of Lusophone cultures: each week a country will be introduced by two objects paired with critical readings and short literary texts, music, or movies. We will be particularly mindful of objects that question and complicate the idea of “Lusophone,” against the backdrop of colonialism and postcolonialism, networks of design, production and consumption, extractivism and the environment, and creative industries. Conducted in Portuguese. Prerequistes: POBS 105 or POBS 0110 and POBS 0400 (or instructor’s permission)

POBS 0630B. Lusophone Cities in Literature, Film and Music..

Description: Rio de Janeiro, Luanda, Lisbon, Macau: the cities of the Portuguese-speaking world are more than just post-card images. They are microcosms of social activity and repositories of historical memory which offer up endless avenues for exploration. In this course we deconstruct urban spaces in Lusophone Africa, Lusophone Asia, Brazil, Portugal and the diaspora, via analyses of works of literature, film, music and more. Some of the topics to be explored include: social and racial inequality; colonialism and urbanization; cityscapes and memory. Beyond this, the course aims to improve oral and written fluency in Portuguese and build knowledge of Lusophone cultures. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 0630D. A Luta Continua: African, Asian, & Indigenous Responses to Coloniality in the Lusophone World.

In this course we will examine the reverberations of anticolonial movements in Portuguese-speaking African and Asian territories, as well as in Indigenous movements in Brazil. Focusing on political, social, and cultural dimensions of emancipation, we will ask: How have African, Asian, and Indigenous writers and artists imagined emancipatory endeavors for their peoples, their countries, and their worlds? What is the role of cultural expression in world-sharing and world-building in response to centuries of colonialism and its legacies? We will broach these questions by reading a broad range of texts, watching films and documentaries, and looking at works of art that respond to manifestations of colonial power. This course also aims to build written and oral proficiency in Portuguese and develop knowledge of the diverse cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 0630E. Gender and Sexuality in the Lusophone World.

This seminar will introduce students to a diverse range of literary figures and cultural producers from the Portuguese-speaking world, ranging from the nineteenth century to the present day, from Machado de Assis to Pabllo Vittar, with a specific focus on gender and sexuality, and their intersections with race and class. Covering a wide selection of genres from novels and novellas to short stories, television, film, and music, we will examine the role of literature and art in reinforcing and challenging norms of gender and sexuality. Students will engage with some key ideas from Gender Studies and Queer Theory and consider concepts from the Global South with regards to expressions of gender and sexuality in the Lusophone world. Topics will include conceptions of nuclear families, sexual deviance, homosociality, militant masculinity, queer representation, trans visibility, intersectionality, and colonial legacies. Taught in Portuguese.

POBS 0630F. Women, Arts & Imagination in the Portuguese-Speaking World.

This course explores how women from across the Portuguese-speaking world have used art, literature, music, and film to tell their own stories and reimagine history. From the revolutionary poems of Angola and Mozambique to the songs of Cape Verde and the novels of Brazil and Portugal, we will discover how creative voices challenge silence, question power, and offer new ways of seeing identity, belonging, and memory. Through readings, films, and creative activities, students will examine how women artists transform personal experience into collective expression and how art becomes a space for rewriting the past and imagining new futures. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 0630I. Earth, Sea, City: Environmental Visions from the Lusophone World.

What does the Portuguese-speaking world reveal about living on a changing planet? Centering environmental questions, this course explores forests and plantations, oceans and rivers, cities and informal settlements, and climate through literature, film, and visual art from Brazil, Lusophone Africa, and Portugal. Attending to histories of migration and empire, we’ll examine how Afro-diasporic cultures and Blackness, Indigenous knowledge, and gender shape relationships to land, water, and other-than-human worlds. Together, we’ll consider how creative works expose environmental inequalities, imagine alternative futures, and invite new ways of understanding ecology as inseparable from culture, power, and justice. Portuguese proficiency required - POBS 0400 or equivalent.

POBS 0673A. Colonial Encounters in the Early Atlantic (HIST 0673A).

Interested students must register for HIST 0673A.

POBS 0710. Modern Brazil Goes to the Movies.

Looks at Brazil through the eye of the camera and focuses on topics such as migration, race relations, gender and family dynamics and social inequities in contemporary Brazilian culture and society. Students will read articles and critical essays relating to the themes of each film as they develop their oral and written language skills. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 0710A. (En)Gendering the Text: Gender & Sexuality in Latin American Literature and Film (GNSS 0710A).

Interested students must register for GNSS 0710A.

POBS 0720. Racial and Gender Politics in Contemporary Brazil (AFRI 0710A).

Interested students must register for AFRI 0710A.

POBS 0810. Belonging and Displacement: Cross-Cultural Identities.

Focuses on the representation of immigrants, migrants and other "border crossers" in contemporary literature from Brazil and other countries. How do people respond to the loss of home and the shift to a new culture? Is "going home" possible? How do individuals deal with their dual or triple identities? Piñon, Lispector, Scliar, Rushdie, Salih, Cristina Garcia, V. S. Naipaul and others. Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.

POBS 0850. Comparative Approaches to the Literatures of Brazil and the United States.

Brazil and the United States have much in common: continental territories, huge natural resources, dynamic economies and multi-ethnic populations. Yet, their histories and cultures are distinctive and unique, as suggested in Vianna Moog's classic symbolic contrast between the Brazilian bandeirante and the American pioneer. We will undertake a comparative study of the two countries' literatures over the past eighty years with an eye towards exploring contextual, thematic and technical analogies as well as differences. Faulkner, Ramos, Lispector, Morrison, Rosa, Scliar, DeLillo, Carvalho, and Doctorow. Some attention to music, film and the visual arts. Enrollment limited to 15. Conducted in English.

POBS 0910. On the Dawn of Modernity.

We will analyze how a new mindset that would later be called modernity slowly emerged from the medieval world and how the trials and errors of the 15th and 16th century navigators helped shape that transformation. The seminar is interdisciplinary insofar as the readings will include developments in astronomy, geography, shipbuilding, mathematics, philosophy, as well as what could be called early anthropology, as stepping stones to the first scientific revolution. Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to: 19. Reserved for First Year students.

POBS 0970. Tropical Delights: Imagining Brazil in History and Culture (HIST 0537B).

Interested students must register for HIST 0537B.

POBS 0990. Mapping Cross-Cultural Identities.

How do we construct our own identity as life becomes a multitude of narrative threads intersecting and overlapping like roadways on a map? How do we reconfigure identities vis-à-vis those who surround us? We will investigate the ever-changing map of cultural identities and its repercussions on human existence via contemporary literature and a series projects that incorporate the arts (visual, digital, literary) and oral history. Some of the writers include Julia Alvarez, Kiran Desai, Junot Diaz, Milton Hatoum, Chang-Rae Lee, Clarice Lispector, Dinaw Mengestu, Nélida Piñon, Salman Rushdie, Taiye Selasi and others. No experience in the arts necessary.

POBS 1070A. On Both Sides of the Lens: Latin American Women Filmmakers (GNSS 1070).

Interested students must register for GNSS 1070.

POBS 1080. Performing Brazil: Language, Theater, Culture.

Designed to deepen the students' understanding of Brazilian culture and society through the performing arts. Students will read a series of plays and respond to them in a variety of ways: in writing, verbally, and through performance. The course will include poetry and music as these can also be performed. Throughout the semester students will also be working on creating their own performance pieces. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1090. Portuguese-speaking Cultures Via Film.

We will view and discuss films from Brazil, Lusophone Africa, Portugal and other regions as vehicles to understand the cultural diversity of Portuguese-speaking countries. Readings will include related fiction and non-fiction focusing on immigration, gender, race, family dynamics and social inequality. Students will write a series of short papers and develop a final project in consultation with the instructor. Particular attention will be paid to contemporary Brazilian cinema. Prerequisite: POBS 0610, 0620, 1030, or 1080, or instructor permission. Enrollment limited to 20. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1210. Afro-Brazilians and the Brazilian Polity (AFRI 1210).

Interested students must register for AFRI 1210.

POBS 1370. US and Brazil: Tangled Relation (HIST 1370).

Interested students should register for HIST 1370.

POBS 1500C. Brazilian Literature in Translation: Clarice Lispector-a Woman of Spirit.

As Brazil's foremost woman writer of the XXth century, Clarice Lispector has received critical attention from French, Brazilian and American feminists. With the aim of appreciating her work comparatively, this course will examine four novels and four story collections from the following theoretical perspectives: existentialist, feminist, poststructuralist and Jewish hermeneutics. Conducted in English.

POBS 1500D. Brief Encounters: Modernist and Postmodernist Brazilian Short Fiction.

With Modernism and Postmodernism as the primary theoretical frames, we will examine the aesthetics of short fiction by discussing short stories and novellas from the 1920s to the 1990s that foreground the characteristics of these literary currents and their respective regional and urban expressions. As images of Brazil, this fiction will also be read within the context of feminist, hybrid, subaltern, and postcolonial stances. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1500E. Contemporary and Brazilian Fiction: New Paths and New Perspectives.

Selected prose narratives from the 1970s to the present are read with the aim of identifying new paths and perspectives in contemporary Brazilian literature and culture that challenge traditional literary and cultural hierarchies as well as canonized aesthetics. Milton Hatoum, João Gilberto Noll, Caio Fernando Abreau, Marlilene Felinto, Sônia Coutinho, Roberto Drummond, Sérgio Sant'Anna, Rubem Fonseca, and others. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1500G. Cultural Politics of Hybridity in Modern Brazilian Fiction.

Explores Brazilian fiction that manifests intersections between erudite, popular and mass cultures. With the aim of challenging unnatural polarities that separate these forms of cultural expression, the theme of hybridity will be examined in prose fiction from the 1960s to the present within the context of the development of the modern Brazilian novel and recent theories on cultural hybridization. Readings will focus on the socio-political and cultural implications of hybridization in prose fiction by such authors as Caio Fernando Abreu, Ivan Angelo, Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, Roberto Drummond, Rubem Fonseca, Clarice Lispector, José Agrippino de Paula, Adélia Prado, Sergio Sant'Anna, and others. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1500H. Esthers of the Diaspora: Female Jewish Voices from Latin America.

Fiction by and/or about Jewish women from Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, and Cuba. Evoking the image of the biblical Queen Esther who lived between two worlds, these Jewish voices will be discussed from the perspectives of feminist, hybrid, diasporic, and transcultural theories. Special attention to Brazil's Clarice Lispector. The expression of the role of women vis-à-vis the immigrant experience will also be discussed. Conducted in English.

POBS 1500I. Fiction and History (COLT 1810G).

Interested students must register for COLT 1810G.

POBS 1501B. Brazilian Biographies (HIST 1313).

Interested students must register for HIST 1313.

POBS 1501D. Pathways of Brazilian Narrative.

The seminar investigates Brazilian narrative from Modernism to the present, at relevant moments from 20th to 21st centuries. Modernism and modernization have dismantled the romantic emphasis on narrative forms and themes as a unitary vision of social and cultural identity. Macunaíma (1928), by Mario de Andrade opened to Brazilian literature a new kind of fiction that considers the multiplicity of a hybrid nation process of identification; a new paradigm re-using themes of exile, mobile identities, violence, terrorism, and interaction between the national and the global environments. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1501E. Histories of Global Health from Lusophone Africa: Biomedical Actions in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea.

To explore histories of health, disease and global public health actions in Lusophone Africa: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau. A broad approach to health considers sociocultural, economic, political and environmental factors. The anthropological take draws students’ attention to the existing links between global structures, historical processes and power relations and patterns of ill-heath, epidemics and biomedical responses or research in urban areas or in remote African villages in this part of the global south (c.1880s-2015). It unveils a century-old (western) morality underlying in public health programs, eradication visions, humanitarian actions, development discourses, security preparedness or other global health actions/mantras. Conducted in English.

POBS 1501F. The Enlightened Censor.

In this course we will follow the trajectories of 18th century Portuguese censors as they permit or forbid books by Voltaire, Rousseau or Locke, but also sermons, plays and dissertations. Is it possible that the censorship of the 18th century has shared with the Enlightenment so many key elements that it could be regarded more as an enlightened censorship than as an anti-Enlightenment censorship? The answer to this question will allow us to better understand the difficult birth of modernity and pluralism and the challenges both face today. In English.

POBS 1501G. Remembering and Forgetting the Portuguese Colonial Empire Public Memory.

This course explores the public memory and forgetting of the Portuguese colonial empire, from the colonial to the postcolonial period. Concentrating on the construction and reproduction of an official memory about the empire in the public space of Portugal, the course will also highlight the entangling between the former imperial metropolis and its former colonies. Also, broader connections will be established between the Portuguese-speaking world and wider European and global contexts. The purpose is to draw attention to the many ways in which colonial legacies are present today as a field of hegemony and ideological disputes.

POBS 1501I. Luso-African Literature in a Post-Colonial Context: A Decolonial Reading of the West.

According to Franz Fanon, decolonization is a historical process that can only be understood when it becomes transparent to itself as the historicizing movement that gives it form and content is discerned. Literature offers approaches that allow a deeper understanding of the post-colonial context and its social and cultural effects. We will examine Luso-African literature from Portugal, Angola, and Mozambique, analyzing it through themes such as race, identity, language, and ancestry. We will perform a decolonial investigation of this literary corpus by working with a theoretical apparatus that will help us to engage in reflections on post-coloniality and its relationship with the West. The course will be taught in Portuguese.

POBS 1520. Latin American Horror (GNSS 1520).

Interested students must register for GNSS 1520.

POBS 1600A. The Afro-Luso-Brazilian Triangle (AFRI 1020C).

Interested students must register for AFRI 1020C.

POBS 1600B. Colonialism, Nationalism and Gender in Portuguese India.

This seminar focuses on Portuguese rule and discourse in India, from an anthropological and historical perspective. Colonialism and nationalism in India will be studied in relation to former Portuguese colonies in Africa as well as to other experiences in India under the British raj. Gender issues will also be addressed. Attention to the case of the devadasi (ritual dancers). Conducted in English.

POBS 1600C. Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Education: Education and the Portuguese-Speaking World.

A comparative education course focusing on schooling in Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, and these Portuguese-speaking populations in the U.S. The role of education in these diverse societies, as well as theories and methodologies for cross-cultural research and analysis, are explored from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Conducted in English.

POBS 1600H. Politics and Culture under the Brazilian Military Dictatorship 1964-85 (HIST 1967L).

Interested students must register for HIST 1967L.

POBS 1600K. On the Dawn of Modernity.

A look at the emergence of modernity and its conflicts with the classical world view as revealed in the writings of the Portuguese navigators (XVth and XVIth centuries) on their encounters with the non-European world. Readings will focus on fields such as astronomy, cartography, geography, shipbuilding, and anthropology, as stepping stones to the first scientific revolution. This literature has been practically unknown to non-Portuguese readers. Conducted in English.

POBS 1600O. Displacement: Colonialism, Migration and Transnationalism in Lusophone Societies.

"Displacement" will be the starting point for the study of a range of classic and contemporary debates on colonialism, migration, slavery, plantation systems, gender inequities, racism, urbanization, transnationalism and global health issues. We will mostly refer to cases related to Portuguese colonialism and contemporary Portuguese-speaking societies - Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, the Asian enclaves and lusophone diaspora.

POBS 1600P. The Last Empire: Portuguese Colonialsm and Decolonization in Comparative Perspective.

Adopting a comparative perspective, the course gives special emphasis to political, ideological and military dimensions of colonial rule in Africa. The first part deals with the evolution of Portuguese colonialism since World War II. The second part focuses on the process of decolonization after 1974, integrating the dissolution of the Portuguese Empire in the international context of the Cold War. Conducted in English.

POBS 1600Q. Perceptions of the Other and Ethnographical Writing in Early Modern Portugal.

Focuses on the privileged situation of Portugal as far as the knowledge of extra-European cultures in early modern Europe is concerned. The course examines agents, instruments and mechanisms of information gathering and diffusion of the "outer world" in Europe via Lisbon. The most important topoi of these Portuguese ethnographical representations will be discussed through a close analysis of a wide range of contemporary texts and visual records. Conducted in English.

POBS 1600R. The Lusophone Black Atlantic: Cultures and Religions Across the Ocean.

Addresses the cultural unity and differentiation within the Lusophone Black Atlantic, with a special focus on mobility, diaspora, and transnationalism. After a general introduction on the historical and cultural construction of the triangular relations between Portugal, Brazil, and Africa, including the consideration of such issues as luso-tropicalism, "creolization," and colonialism, we will move into the topic of Afro-Brazilian religions like Umbanda and Candomblé as a way to analyze how a matrix civilization was transported across the Atlantic to Brazil and back to Portugal. The issue of the transnationalism and mobility of such religions, accompanying the diaspora of Africans and Brazilians to Portugal over the last 20 years, will provide the basis for further discussion of the notion of "lusophone black cultures." The course bibliography includes anthropological texts as well as current Luso-African and Brazilian literature. Conducted in English.

POBS 1600S. 17th Century Portuguese World.

Analyzes the major historical events that influenced the Portuguese world under Habsburg rule and during the baroque movement. To question definition of Empire, nation, national identity, colonial spaces. It will examine Brazil during the Dutch invasion; the expectations of a future independence from the yoke of Spain; political, economic and religious situation after the Portuguese restoration in 1640; political and economic struggle that followed; the Portuguese Inquisition and the missionary efforts undertaken in Brazil; the prophetical and messianic expectations of the Iberian world (Catholic and Jewish); and the political and cultural aspects of seventeenth-century Ibero-American baroque culture. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1600X. Urban Latin America (LAST 1510I).

Interested students must register for LAST 1510I.

POBS 1600Z. The Making of Modern Brazil (LAST 1510J).

Interested students must register for LAST 1510J.

POBS 1601A. The Birth of the Modern World: A Global History of Empires.

A multidisciplinary comparative analysis of the role of empires in the formation of the modern world and globalization since the 'new' imperialism of nineteenth century to the end of the colonial empires in the second half of the twentieth century. Case studies from several empires (Portuguese, American, Soviet, French and British) offer a global history of imperialism and colonialism. The links between imperialism, internationalism, nationalism, and modern racism; the relationship between imperial and colonial societies and cultures; the role of international and transnational institutions in the transformation of imperialism and the global emergence of human rights. Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to 40.

POBS 1601B. Defying the Wind of Change: Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa, 1961-1980.

Examines the political, military, intelligence and economic ties between Portugal, Rhodesia (before and after its Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965) and apartheid-era South Africa as the three countries resisted calls for equal political representation for men and women of all races while exploiting their growing financial muscle as well as the circumstances of the Cold War. The bloc was undone by the Portuguese revolution of April 1974, which led to the independence of Angola and Mozambique, and left Rhodesia’s borders exposed. Extensive use of recently declassified material gathered in Lisbon and Pretoria. Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to 25.

POBS 1601C. From Dictatorship to Democracy in the Iberian Peninsula: Transformations and Current Challenges.

Studies the origins and nature of the Franco and Salazar dictatorships, outwardly similar and largely concurrent, but in fact different in their aims, outlook and methods. Special attention to the personalties of the two dictators as well as the legacy of Spain's Civil War and Portugal’s colonial Empire as elements of differentiation between the two regimes. The creation of democratic regimes in Spain and Portugal in the mid-1970s in the aftermath of prolonged dictatorships and the current political and economic challenges faced by these two countries are also considered in detail. Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to 25.

POBS 1601E. Travels and Exhibitions: Writing, Collecting + Displaying the World in the 19th + 20th Centuries.

To explore a cultural and intellectual history of the Portuguese-speaking world, concentrating on the circulation of objects, images, ideas and people within Brazil, Angola, Goa and different European spaces, from Lisbon to Paris. To discuss the history of science, the relationship between knowledge and colonial contexts, the interdependence between ideological agendas and exhibitions, the affirmation of national and imperial identities through spaces of visual and material knowledge. Through a series of comparative and transnational case studies this course will promote the crossing of contemporary theoretical questions engaging with historical written and visual sources. Conducted in English.

POBS 1601G. The Politics and Government of Lusophone Countries.

Ranging from regional powers to small island states, from consolidated democracies to hybrid regimes, from good governance to weak states and petro-states, the Lusophone world represents a diverse and stimulating political context. This course provides a systematic analysis of Lusophone political institutions and behavior, while considering the wider implications of the Lusophone experience. It is organized thematically, with topics including democratization; state structures; political institutions and culture; clientelism; and party systems. Each topic focuses on a set of Lusophone countries. While all Lusophone countries are considered, the cases of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Angola are particularly emphasized.

POBS 1601H. Contemporary Migrations: Movements, Experiences and Policies of Belonging.

Addresses theme of contemporary migrations, its visibility and strategic relevance (social, economic, political, demographic and cultural). Drawing on plural theoretical contributions, as well as empirical results from research carried out with Portuguese migrants in various sites and with diverse migrant populations based in Portugal,discussing: Contemporary global migration present and future trends;Portugal as an emigration and immigration context (particularities, tendencies, potentialities, obstacles);Daily-life aspects and experiences of migration (work, family, domestic life, culture consumption practices, transnational networks of belonging, association life); Identity, belonging and cultural (re)production strategies, tools and products. Approach to contemporary migration, emphasizing the discussion of data emerging from qualitative research.

POBS 1601I. Media + Propaganda in Contemporary History.

This course intends to study what was the role of the media and propaganda in the construction of the political reality by means an interdiciplinary and empirical analysis of several paradigmatic cases of the contemporary history in the lusophone and Iberian worlds. Special attention is paid to the following relevant topics: the historical evolution of the Portuguese media in the United States of America; the creation of the New State of Salazar in Portugal and the New Spain of Franco; the Portuguese diplomacy in the Spanish Civil War; or the transition to democracy in the Iberian Peninsula. Conducted in English.

POBS 1601K. Early Modern Global History at the John Carter Brown Library: A Research Workshop.

Gain firsthand experience developing your own research project at the world-renowned John Carter Brown Library! The JCB houses thousands of rare books, maps, and manuscripts pertaining to the diverse histories and cultures of the early Americas. With opportunities to learn from a wide range of professional curators, conservators, librarians, and researchers in residence, students will approach the JCB collection as a site for research into colonial histories and as a subject of study in its own right. Class will be conducted in English, but a reading knowledge of Portuguese and/or Spanish is recommended. Most readings will be in English, and students will be able to develop research projects with JCB material in language(s) of their choosing.

POBS 1601M. Migrants, Political Activism and the Racialization of Labor.

Histories of white nationalism in US law and discourse to criminalize, marginalize and racialize migrant progressive politics and labor activities are explored through first-hand and secondary sources, discussions and site visits. Migrants challenging limitations on civic rights as a result of fluid and contradictory intersections of racial and ethnic categorizations are examined through a primary case example of Portuguese-speaking workers in North America over the 20th century from Europe, Atlantic Islands and Africa. Topics include socialist and communist labor movement; anti-immigrant laws; industrial capitalism’s exploitation of migrant workers and role in racial marginalization; migrant agency and action for change. In English

POBS 1601N. Politics of Indigeneity in Brazil (LACA 1503Q).

Interested students must register for LACA 1503Q.

POBS 1601O. The Portuguese Estado Novo. Visual Propaganda, Public Use of Past and Self-Representation.

Starting with Pierre Nora’s concept of Lieux de Memoire – places where the exhausted capital of collective memory condenses and is expressed – this course explores from two perspectives, the history of Portuguese Estado Novo. It embarks upon a chronological study of the period following the economic, political, and social transformations that had affected Portugal. ScrutinizeS how the Estado Novo created, used and re-adapted some Portuguese Lieux de Memoire in order to legitimize itself; shape the way Portuguese understand their country; generate a favorable image in Portugal and abroad. Conducted in English.

POBS 1601P. Global Decolonization in Africa and Asia: the Portuguese Case in a Comparative Perspective.

This course provides a critical, comparative assessment of the global decolonization momentum, taking the Portuguese case as the key case-study. It does so by exploring diverse historiographical problems and historical processes that shaped the multiple trajectories of decolonization after 1945. As a consequence, the course also addresses the role of international and transnational networks, movements and institutions in the global histories of decolonization, as major players in the demise of European colonialism. The historical legacies of late colonialism in politics, society and culture, both in former colonies and metropoles, will also be assessed. Conducted in English.

POBS 1601Q. Portuguese and Lusophone African Literature and Cinema.

The course aims to study the relationship between literature and cinema in the context of renowned Portuguese authors and Portuguese-speaking Africa. Thus, students will study a varied group of great novelists (José Saramago, José Eduardo Agualusa, Mia Couto) and notable filmmakers (João Botelho, Ivo M. Ferreira, Teresa Prata, Lula Buarque de Hollanda) who chose to direct films from the texts of these writers. And, due to their importance, unavoidable filmmakers (Paulo Rocha, Manoel de Oliveira and Miguel Gomes, Flora Gomes) will also be approached. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1601R. Beyond the Masterpiece Tradition: Mining the Archive for Alternative Histories of Portuguese Cinema.

Drawing on anthropology, new film history and media archaeology, this course takes the moving image archive as a departure point to revisit, reconceptualise and expand Portuguese film history and historiography. We will consider the works and formats that have been neglected – actualities, utility films, newsreels, amateur films, domestic footage and film fragments – to revise theoretical and historiographical assumptions and recover parallel, interrupted and non-teleological film histories that have hitherto failed to be written. We will also examine the appropriation of archival footage by other film productions and discuss the impact of the ‘digital turn’ on film archives. Conducted in English.

POBS 1601S. Environment, Health and Colonial Society in Africa- 19th and 20th Centuries.

This course seeks to build an understanding of how environment and health intersected in colonial Africa in the late 19th and 20th centuries by looking diachronically at a varied set of cases that reveal important aspects about changing disease ecologies and knowledge production, about environmental change and human agency, but also about power and inequalities in colonial societies. Though guided by a comparative cross-national and cross-imperial dimension, the course also seeks to fill the gap in the study of environment, health and imperialism by bringing to the fore the cases of Angola, Cape Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe, Mozambique and Guiné-Bissau, territories under Portuguese colonial rule until the 1970s. Open to all students, this course is also intended as complementary to other courses offered at Brown, namely on the History of Africa and the History of STEaM.

POBS 1601T. Regimes of Contention in Southern Europe.

This course takes Portugal, in the context of the southern European semi-periphery, as a case-study for exploring the contentious dynamics between institutions and movement actors from the 1960s onwards. The course is divided in three parts: (1) the research problems associated with this course; (2) Portugal’s semi-peripheral position; (3) social movements historical analysis in Portugal, considering the state-party-movement nexus, as well important critical junctures such as 1974 Revolution and the 2010 austerity period. Even though the course is to be taught chronologically for pedagogical reasons, in order to understand its historical evolution in a global context, students will be required to develop insights that cross the various topics under study. As such, this course will provide them with an in-depth reading and historical understanding of the Portuguese mobilizations from below in the European context.

POBS 1601U. International Solidarity and the Struggle for Independence of Portuguese Colonies.

This course introduces students to an overview of the international solidarity with the struggle for independence of Portuguese colonies, including the myriad ways through which states, non-state actors and individual activists engaged with the liberation movements. Building on existing scholarship, the course will center on the role played by international solidarity in fueling anticolonial and anti-racist discourses for foreign audiences and attracting material and non-material resources for the liberation movements.

POBS 1601V. Salazar’s Dictatorship in Comparative Historical Perspective: From the Fascist Era to Decolonization.

This course provides a critical approach to the principal themes in the history of the Salazar dictatorship (Estado Novo) from a comparative perspective. It covers the entire span of the regime and incorporates its main dimensions – nationalism, colonialism, repressive apparatus, Church/State relations, system of political organisation. Particular emphasis is placed on the wider international context, highlighting the importance of transnational connections and comparative approaches in the process of historical understanding. To what extent did the regime provide a unique response to the interwar crisis of liberalism? How did Salazarism influence the rise of authoritarian regimes in Europe and South America? Was Salazarism different from Fascism? How useful is the concept of normalization in defining the experience of everyday life under the regime? Providing answers to these questions will require drawing from the variegated inputs of political, social and cultural history.

POBS 1601W. Challenging the Colonial Complex: Theory and Praxis in the Portuguese-speaking world.

This course maps anti-colonial, postcolonial and decolonial critique and praxis in the Portuguese speaking world. It investigates a wide range of writings, while bringing forth an array of artistic, cultural, and media practices of resistance. The course is designed to claim the centrality of these voices and to encourage students to think visually – through not just about images, through not just about art. Reading, watching, listening, and discussing intensely and with care will be the basis of our academic work as we explore the meanings and practices of decolonization in the Portuguese-speaking world. Reading knowledge of Portuguese is required.

POBS 1601X. Media, Entertainment and Politics in the Lusophone World.

The main goal of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the relationship between the realms of politics, media and entertainment in different national contexts sharing a common official language: Portugal, Brazil, and the African Portuguese-speaking countries. This knowledge is essential for understanding the contextual features of political action, social dynamics and cultural and artistic production in these countries. The course starts with a series of lectures aimed at fostering theoretical knowledge and critical thinking on political regimes, media systems and the relationship between entertainment and politics. Subsequently, the course acquires a more empirical nature: after depicting the general political features of the countries under analysis, sessions will be devoted to the discussion of media systems, media and politics dynamics and the relationship between entertainment and politics in Portugal, Brazil, and African Portuguese-speaking countries.

POBS 1601Z. Art and Visual Culture from the Lusophone Black Atlantic: A Decolonial and Comparative Approach.

The course aims to introduce students from various levels and backgrounds to the visual cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world, with an emphasis on Atlantic historical and contemporary circulations between Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Brazil, and a focus on the visual, performative and material knowledge production coming from modern and contemporary art, curating/exhibition histories and visual culture at large. Course instructor: Ana Balona de Oliveira

POBS 1602A. Portugal: The Journey from "Welcoming" Policies to Anti-Immigration Mobilization.

The course examines the shift in Portugal’s migration landscape, from a colonial legacy of openness to cultural diversity to the rise of anti-immigration movements. It explores how Portugal’s national myth of a country open to diversity, shaped by its colonial past, obscures issues of racism and migration. The course traces how migration policies have evolved in a postcolonial context, analyzes media’s role in perpetuating stereotypes, and investigates the rise of far-right anti-immigration mobilization. It also highlights immigrant resistance to these changes. Using Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy, the course encourages collaborative learning and participatory practices, fostering dialogue and decolonizing methodologies in migration studies. Students will engage actively in discussions, readings, and reflections, contributing to an exchange of ideas among students, faculty, and guest lecturers. Taught in English, course instructor: visiting FLAD professor, Thais França

POBS 1602C. Desire in Iberian Cinema.

How does desire shape national cinemas? What is the relationship between an individual’s desire and what they see on screen? What are the dynamics of desire in the cinematic screen? Through films ranging from the late nineteenth century to contemporary productions, this course examines, in Spanish and Portuguese cinema, how desire is constructed, repressed, performed, or liberated, and how Iberian filmmakers engage with themes such as colonialism and imperialism, dictatorship and democracy, memory, censorship, queerness, bodily autonomy, and transgression, and national imaginaries. Combining film theory with cultural and gender studies, the course invites students to consider how desire becomes a site of resistance, vulnerability, and creativity within the evolving landscapes of Iberian cinema. Students will gain tools for film analysis while considering broader cultural and aesthetic questions that shape Iberian cinema. Course is double listed with HISP 1602C

POBS 1602D. Entangled Memories: Heritage, Sustainability, and Communities in Portugal and Lusophone Africa.

This interdisciplinary course explores the dynamic interplay between shared memory, heritage, and the construction of sustainable communities across Portuguese and Lusophone African societies and diasporas. Integrating literature, cultural studies, and the social sciences, we will draw on case studies from Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Guinea-Bissau to examine how cultural narratives and artistic practices engage historical legacies, identity formation, and contemporary socio-political challenges. Anchored in Afro-Portuguese and Lusophone African literatures, the syllabus extends to visual arts, music, cinema, oral history, and digital media, fostering comparative and cross-disciplinary analysis. Students engage critically with memory studies, postcolonial and decolonial feminist theory, and sustainability studies. Through close reading, visual and archival analysis, and community-oriented research methods, we will investigate the politics of remembrance, reparative heritage practices, and emerging imaginaries of sustainable futures.

POBS 1670. History of Brazil (HIST 1310).

Interested students must register for HIST 1310.

POBS 1671. Brazil: From Abolition to Emerging World Power (HIST 1312).

Interested students must register for HIST 1312.

POBS 1694. Comparative History of Abolitionism in the Atlantic World.

To develop a transnational approach to the rise of abolitionism in the Atlantic world. In a comparative framework, tracing the rise of abolitionism in Europe, Americas, and Africa, examining the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, the rise of colonialism in Africa, and the growth of forced labor in the wake of transatlantic slave trade. Deals with key debates in the literature of African, Atlantic history, including causes and motivations of abolitionism, relationship between the suppression of the slave trade and the growth of forced labor in Africa, the historical ties between abolitionism and the early stages of colonialism in Africa.

POBS 1740. Artful Teaching: Intersecting the Arts with Foreign and Second Language Acquisition.

How can we create meaningful experiences for those learning a foreign or second language? What makes the creative arts (art)iculate so powerfully and naturally with foreign and second language acquisition? How do the arts enable students to become aware of surrounding cultures while simultaneously acquiring a new language? This course will explore connections between the arts--visual, literary and performing--and language acquisition in a combined workshop and seminar approach. Readings will include authors Sheridan Blau, Augusto Boal, Shirley Brice Heath, Paulo Freire, Jan Mandell, Twyla Tharp, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and others.

POBS 1800A. "Que país é este?" Twentieth-Century Definitions of Brazil and Brazilianness.

Focuses on three major areas: the portraits of Brazil from the late 1930s to the early 1960s, mainly by left-leaning intellectuals; the economic and political model of Brazil imposed by the military regime of 1964-1985; and the subversion of the official definitions of Brazil in the "anti-histories" of the Abertura period (1975-1985). Materials drawn from the social sciences, history, literature, and film. Authors include Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Gilberto Freire, Vianna Moog, Paulo Freire, Golbery do Couto e Silva, Roberto da Matta, Caio Prado Jr., Richard Morse, and others. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1800B. Lusofonia: National Identities and Transnational Challenges.

The creation of the Commonwealth of Portuguese-Speaking Countries has reignited debate concerning the roots, history, contemporary developments, and future prospects of the Portuguese-speaking world. This seminar focuses on key issues regarding the identities of the Portuguese-speaking nations, their interrelations, and their interactions with the wider world. A. de Quental, T. de Pascoais, Pessoa, G. Freyre, S. Buarque de Holanda, Vianna Moog, A. Sérgio, E. Lourenço, A. Cabral, and R. DaMatta. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1800C. Constructing Men, Projecting Masculinity: Questioning Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Brazil.

In this course we will examine how contemporary Brazilian cultural production – particularly literature and cinema – (re)formulates/questions/preserves traditional configurations of male gender identity. We will discuss constructions and representations of the male subject within contemporary cultural production, particularly focusing on the later-half of the twentieth century. More specifically, employing ideas of gender as a form of performance we will question gendered stereotypes and their intersections with race and socio-economic position, destabilize binary gender constructions / understandings, and offer queer readings of a multiplicity of texts. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1800E. The Brazilian Puzzle: Confronting the Post-Colonial Legacy.

Brazilian intellectuals have often attempted to understand and explain the challenges in modern Brazilian society (political, economic, racial, educational) by pondering Brazil's Iberian roots and assessing the legacy of Portuguese colonialism. Manuel Bonfim, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Paulo Prado, Gilberto Freyre, Vianna Moog, Caio Prado, Celso Furtado, Paulo Freire, Oswald the Andrade, Roberto DaMatta. Attention to film, music and the visual arts. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 1800F. The Lusophone World and the Struggle for Modernity.

A study of classical writings from the Portuguese-speaking world dealing with the issue of modernity, focusing particularly on the Counter-Reformation and Baroque paradigms versus the Enlightenment. Portuguese, Brazilian and African writers such as Antero de Quental, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Vianna Moog, Amílcar Cabral and others will be read critically and in a comparative approach. Conducted in Portuguese. Enrollment limited to 40.

POBS 1967L. Politics and Culture Under The Brazilian Military Dictatorship, 1964-1985 (HIST 1967L).

Interested students must register for HIST 1967L.

POBS 1970. Reading and Guided Study.

Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

POBS 1990. Research and Preparation of Honors Projects.

This independent study course is designed for students working on honors projects. Written permission of the concentration advisor (Prof. Sobral) is required. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

POBS 2120B. Practicum in English as a Second Language.

The practicum in ESL is an integrating and culminating experience in the Master's Program in ESL and Cross Cultural Studies. The course provides a review of the theories and concepts related to English as a Second Language. Throughout the course students apply what they have learned about teaching English language learners and reflect on their assessment, planning and implementation of second language teaching through group discussions and seminars. To participate in this course students must have access to ELs in a classroom setting.

POBS 2120C. Cross-Cultural Practices: Children and Families.

This course focuses on child development and family practices from a cross-cultural perspective. Readings give the participants a broad view of the diversity of environments in which children develop physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally. Course participants explore the environment of childhood throughout the world and analyze child-rearing practices in various western and non-western societies. Participants also study and discuss the development and status of various ethno-linguistic groups of children in Rhode Island, and examine the implications for community-school relationships, teaching and learning. This course is taught in English.

POBS 2450. Exchange Scholar Program.

POBS 2500B. Portuguese Overseas Encounters.

A critical analysis of some classic Portuguese travel writings from the 15th to the 20th century. The readings include Zurara, Camões, Fernão Mendes Pinto, História Trágico-Marítima, Ramalho Ortigão, Raul Brandão, as well as the contemporary Pedro Rosa Mendes. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2500E. Portuguese Cultural and National Identity.

A critical reading of some key issues in Portuguese intellectual history regarding Portuguese national identity. Classical authors such as Verney, Antero de Quental, Teixeira de Pascoais, Fernando Pessoa, Antonio Sérgio, and Eduardo Lourenço are read along with contemporary theoretical works on the issue of cultural and national identity. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2500F. Tales of the "Sertão".

The reality and mythology of the "sertão" have long been a source of inspiration for Brazilian writers, visual artists, and filmmakers. This seminar considers the transformations of the "sertão" motif since the second half of the nineteenth century. Fiction by José de Alencar, Euclides da Cunha, Graciliano Ramos and João Guimarães Rosa. Films by Glauber Rocha and Sandra Kogut. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2500G. Nation and Narration.

The invention and transformation of the idea of Brazil as a nation narrative texts since the middle of the 19th century. Manuel Antônio de Almeida, José de Alencar, Adolfo Caminha, Machado de Assis, Monteiro Lobato, Mário de Andrade, Adalzira Bittencourt, Antônio Callado and João Ubaldo Ribeiro. Theoretical texts by Benedict Anderson, Homi Bhabba, Edward Said, Eric Hobsbawn, Frantz Fanon, Roberto Schwarz and others. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2500H. The City and the Street: Tradition, Modernity and Human Subjectivity in Brazilian Urban Literature.

From Machado de Asiss's streetcar chronicles, João do Rio's belle-époque flâneur crônicas, and modernists' views of São Paulo down to the urban paranoia of Rubem Fonseca's crime narratives and the destabilizing subjectivities of contemporary writers, this seminar examines diverse urban bodies and cartographies for understanding spatial and temporal relationships between the city and bodies, sexual cultures, gender roles, violence, peripheries, and metropolitan apocalyptic tensions. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2500I. The Portuguese Essay.

Focuses on some key themes of Portuguese social, political and cultural life that have been dealt with in the essay form, in the 19th and 20th century, such as Portugal's decline, modernization, regeneration and national identity. Special attention to literature on the essay as a genre. Readings include Antero de Quental, Oliveira Martins, Silvio Lima, Joaquim de Carvalho, Antonio José Saraiva, Eduardo Lourenço and others. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2500K. Senses and Sensibilities in the Nineteenth Century Portuguese Novel.

The works to be read are representative of the main literary trends in 19th century Portuguese literature. They will be analyzed with a focus on literary aesthetics, but also on meanings (or senses), both culturally and personally, by exploring the textual construction of emotions, i.e., the engagement of sensibilities in the written word. Authors to be studied include Almeida Garrett, Camilo Castelo Branco and Eça de Queirós. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2500L. Latin American Historiography (HIST 2971E).

Interested students must register for HIST 2971E.

POBS 2500N. Got Rights? Human Rights and Contemporary Brazilian Literature.

Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos states that nowadays, there is a “global hegemony of human rights as a discourse of human dignity” (2015: 22). Nonetheless, Sousa Santos observes that this hegemony is challenged by a reality of widespread human rights abuses. What then, is the value of human rights and what role does literature play in the discursive construction and the praxis of human rights? This course examines how contemporary Brazilian literature conceptualizes human rights through topics such as authoritarianism, class, race, urban space. The course also establishes connections between human rights in Brazilian and select Spanish American texts.

POBS 2500P. Ways of Belonging in Portuguese Literature.

Based on works by twentieth- and twenty-first century Portuguese authors, this course proposes to explore ways in which Portuguese literature presents itself as a spatial practice that shapes a sense of belonging around certain cultural landscapes. Starting from the idea that environmental perceptions are intertwined with cultural legacies, this course aims to trace a journey through a variety of cultural landscapes that link the present to the past and open space for a critical reflection that brings together local solidarities and transformative worldviews. Readings include authors from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, such as Camilo Castelo Branco, Antero de Quental, Raul Brandão, Miguel Torga, Agustina Bessa-Luís, Eduardo Lourenço, José Mattoso, Maria Filomena Mónica, Miguel Esteves Cardoso, Álvaro Domingues, Alexandra Lucas Coelho, Hugo Gonçalves, and Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida. We will also look at music, cinema, and visual arts.

POBS 2500S. Narrating Nations and Colonialism: Gender Representations in the African Literary Map (Past and Pre.

This seminar explores the intersections of gender, nation, and colonialism in African literatures written in Portuguese. It juxtaposes colonial literature, which often reproduced subalternizing images of women to sustain imperial ideologies, with African literary voices that redefined nationhood and cultural identity. Through close reading of poetry, short stories, and novels from the late 19th century to the present, students will analyze how female figures appear as both symbols of colonial desire and as pillars of anti-colonial and postcolonial imagination. Authors include Alfredo Troni, Fausto Duarte, Tomaz Vieira da Cruz, Pepetela, Dina Salústio, and Paulina Chiziane. The course emphasizes gendered narratives of nativism, nationalism, colonialism, and postcolonial memory while foregrounding critical theories on coloniality, subalternization, and African modernities. Students are expected to lead discussions, engage critically with texts, and develop a final research paper. Fluency in Portuguese (reading and discussion).

POBS 2600A. Medieval and Renaissance Portuguese Literature.

An analysis of Portuguese literature from the Middle Ages to the 16th century. Special attention given to the poetry of the Cancioneiros, Fernão Lopes, Gil Vicente, and Luís de Camões. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600B. Saramago and His Contemporaries.

Focuses mainly on the "oeuvre" of José Saramago, the recently deceased Portuguese Nobel Prize winner. Four other well-known Portuguese writers (Vergílio Ferreira, Agustina Bessa-Luís, António Lobo Antunes, Lídia Jorge) are also studied as a way of contextualizing Saramago's work but, more importantly, for their own merit as outstanding novelists. Complementary readings will mostly consist of theoretical texts concerning an approach to contemporary novels based on the nexus between history and fiction on the one hand, and the construction of emotions in literature on the other. Conducted in Portuguese. Enrollment limited to 25.

POBS 2600C. Foundations of Literary Theory.

Designed to provide a solid foundation on the development of literary theory from its ancient roots in Plato, Aristotle, Horace and Plotinus to the contemporary period. Includes Kant, the Russian Formalists, Lukács, Jakobson, Bakhtin, Barthes, Derrida, Ricoeur, Said and others. Conducted in English.

POBS 2600D. Brazilian Fictions of the Self.

Focuses on representations of the self as a "supreme fiction" in Brazilian novels since the late 19th. century. Machado de Assis, Raul Pompeia, Raquel de Queiroz, Graciliano Ramos, Clarice Lispector, Lúcio Cardoso, Lygia Fagundes Telles, Raduan Nassar, Sérgio Sant'Anna and João Gilberto Noll. Open to advanced undergraduates with permission from the instructor. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600E. António Lobo Antunes and his contemporaries.

The course aims to offer a knowledge of contemporary Portuguese literature centered around the works of António Lobo Antunes, the most prestigious writer in Portuguese literature today, essential to understand the collective Portuguese memory and the collective experience of the Portuguese people over the last 40 years.
This course is also about other outstanding contemporary authors, in order to make the student aware of other voices of Portuguese literature, especially those from the most recent generation of writers. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600G. Decolonizing Brazil: The Postcolonial Dilemma of "Not Being And Being Other".

Considering the "ambivalent construction of the Brazilian's cultural existence" as the basic stance for reexamining Brazil from a revised postcolonial approach, this seminar will contextualize the Brazilian postcolonial from the viewpoints of diversity, difference, hybridity, and heterogeneity. Authors to be read are Manuel Antônio de Almeida, Machado de Assis, Adolfo Caminha, Oswald de Andrade, Graciliano Ramos, Samuel Rawet, Silviano Santiago, and Lygia Fagundes Telles. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600I. Modern and Contemporary Brazilian Poetry.

An intensive reading of selected Brazilian poets of the past eighty years, including Carlos Drummond de Andrade, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Mário Faustino, Paulo Leminski, Ana Cristina Cesar, the "concretistas", and Salgado Maranhão. Each student will be responsible for an oral presentation about an additional poet, to be chosen in consultation with the instructor. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600J. The "I" of the Beholder: The Autobiographical Mode in Modern Brazilian Fiction.

Analyzes first-person fictional narration and the ethics of self- examination, self-display and self-invention. Examines questions of truth in fiction, the self and the other, autobiographical theory, and the concept of witnessing and reporting in relation to self- representation. Mário de Andrade, Cyro dos Anjos, Antônio Olavo Pereira, Clarice Lispector, Lygia Fagundes Telles, Helena Parente Cunha, Rubem Fonseca, Sérgio Sant'Anna and Bernardo de Carvalho. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600K. Imaginários aquáticos na prosa brasileira.

Elemento mítico apropriado pela arte ao longo do tempo, a água aparece de várias formas na tradição literária brasileira como poderosa metáfora de origem e também como espaço político atravessado por diversos tipos de personagens. A partir de uma perspectiva trans-histórica e interdisciplinar, o curso propõe analisar obras de diferentes períodos e vozes autorais, em relatos que se desenrolam sobre as águas, dentro delas ou tendo-a como testemunha ou agente em narrativas literárias e audiovisuais. O corpus selecionado apresenta várias formas de deslocamento — tanto voluntário quanto forçado, enfocando imagens aquáticas que apresentam sujeitos em trânsito, incluindo indígenas, escravizados, imigrantes e desaparecidos políticos. Entre lagos, rios e oceanos, as discussões irão explorar a construção de cenas em que as águas podem ser entendidas como um grande arquivo líquido de muitas histórias a serem (re)contadas. Instruction in Portuguese with Stefania Chiarelli

POBS 2600M. The Word in the Dark: Passion, Quest and Identity in the Universe of Clarice Lispector.

This seminar will examine the major novels, short story collections, and crônicas by the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector and analyze the development of her literary voice and her unique use of language. Reading her work through and beyond the existential, feminist and poststructuralist views manifested in the best critical and theoretical analyses of her work, this seminar will focus especially upon her passionate struggle with language as well as her genre-breaking narratives, alongside her ontological quest for narrative subjectivity. Seminar presentations and papers will explore these issues with the aim of understanding Clarice's spiritual and philosophical impulses as well as her original linguistic contribution to Brazilian and World Literatures. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600N. Transgressing Gender: Female Voicing in Modern Brazilian Literature.

This seminar looks at theoretical and critical essays on gender and beyond in relation to the fiction of three major Brazilian female writers: Rachel de Queiroz, Lygia Fagundes Telles, and Clarice Lispector. Discussion addresses issues of gender identity and ambiguity, female voicing, gender politics, alterity, feminist consciousness, as well as power and resistance. Readings include two or more works by each of the three writers. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600O. The Sage of Suspicion: Machado de Assis and the Agencies of Narrative.

Novels and short stories of Machado de Assis within the context of the socio-political reality of nineteenth-century Brazil. Attention to the ideologies of Brazil's ruling class, its self-image and views on national identity, class and race; the issue of fiction vs. reality; and/or such topics as irony, symbolism, and narratology. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600P. Fernando Pessoa and Co.

An analysis of key writings by the major Portuguese Modernist poet Fernando Pessoa, as well as by his more important heteronyms, particularly Alvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, and António Mora. The course will emphasize the recurrent themes of identity, divided self, meaning, disquietude, and displacement. Conducted in Portuguese.

POBS 2600W. Contemporary Brazilian Women Writers in the Culture of Money: A Literature of Their Own.

This advanced seminar will study, comment and debate seven contemporary Brazilian novels and two collections of short stories written by women during the last thirty years. Some of the main subjects to be addressed are fear, love, loneliness and exclusion that characterize current turning points for women. The literary works stemming from this kind of environment tend to lead to a labyrinth that maps their characters’ and society’s emotional behavior, thereby transforming meaning and redirecting the pathways of aesthetic form, while modifying the conventions that shed light upon the authors’ construction of their stories.

POBS 2970. Preliminary Examination Preparation.

For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.

POBS 2980. Reading and Guided Study.

Reading in Portuguese language, literature, civilization, and bilingual studies. Conducted via Portuguese readings and discussions. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

POBS 2990. Thesis Preparation.

For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.