ID:
L0034
Duration (hours):
54
CFU:
9
SSD:
LETTERATURE PORTOGHESE E BRASILIANA
Located in:
PESCARA
Url:
MODERN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES AND CULTURES/CORSO GENERICO Year: 1
Year:
2025
Course Catalogue:
Overview
Date/time interval
Secondo Semestre (15/02/2026 - 25/05/2026)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
command critical tools and categories for the analysis of Portuguese modernism (avant-garde, journals, manifestos, intervention texts, authorship and performativity);
read and discuss in depth a modernist corpus in the original language, with particular focus on the work of José de Almada Negreiros;
analyse complex texts (avant-garde prose, the novel, and documentary materials), integrating formal, rhetorical, historical-cultural and intermedial levels;
reconstruct Almada’s artistic trajectory from a comparative and intermedial perspective (writing, visual arts, performance), identifying continuities and transformations;
develop and defend well-grounded interpretations supported by textual evidence and critical scholarship;
communicate effectively in Portuguese within a seminar setting (discussion, presentations, critical debate).
Course Prerequisites
No formal prerequisites are required. However, a level of Portuguese reading competence sufficient to follow lectures and discussions and to work with texts in the original language is recommended; where necessary, comprehension will be supported by published translations and/or by materials provided by the lecturer.
Teaching Methods
Teaching combines lectures with participatory activities, including cooperative learning, multimedia lab sessions, seminars and round tables with lecturers from Italian and international universities; self-managed workshops are also envisaged.
Assessment Methods
Assessment consists of a final oral examination covering the whole syllabus. The exam assesses the ability to place texts and documents within their historical and cultural framework, the appropriate use of the critical categories addressed in the course, the quality of textual analysis (including close reading of selected passages during the exam), argumentative rigour, and clarity of presentation.
As an alternative or as an additional component, and subject to agreement with the lecturer, students may submit a written report / short written assignment / focused study on a topic of their choice, provided it is consistent with the course aims, in order to develop an in-depth focus on an aspect or corpus of particular interest. The written work may be discussed during the oral exam and may be taken into account as a positive element in the overall assessment.
Texts
Primary texts
José de Almada Negreiros: Ultimatum; avant-garde prose (1915–1917), with particular attention to A Engomadeira, K4 – O Quadrado Azul, Saltimbancos (editions/excerpts indicated and provided by the lecturer); further supporting texts and documents related to the Paris/Ingenuidade and Madrid/Unidade strands (materials provided by the lecturer).
José de Almada Negreiros, Nome de Guerra (full reading).
Modernist journals: a selection of texts and documents from Orpheu and Portugal Futurista (with guided references to Contemporânea and Presença) (materials provided).
Fernando Pessoa (selected): “Letter on the genesis of the heteronyms” (1934); selected poems related to Paulism, Intersectionism and Sensationism; Álvaro de Campos’s Ultimatum (materials provided).
Reference bibliography
Carlos Reis (ed.), História Crítica da Literatura Portuguesa, vol. VIII: O Modernismo, Verbo/Almedina, 2015.
Luciana Stegagno Picchio, Nel segno di Orfeo. Fernando Pessoa e l’avanguardia portoghese, Il Nuovo Melangolo, 2004 (pp. 9–16; 206–225).
Valeria Tocco, Breve storia della letteratura portoghese, Carocci, 2015 (chs. 6–7).
Roberto Vecchi – Vincenzo Russo (eds.), La letteratura portoghese. I testi e le idee, Mondadori Education, 2017 (chapters indicated).
Almada Negreiros: selected bibliography
Almada Negreiros, Prosa d’avanguardia, edited by Valeria Tocco, Urogallo, Perugia, 2014.
José de Almada Negreiros, Poesia, vol. 1, Obras Completas, Imprensa Nacional–Casa da Moeda, Lisbon, 1985.
José-Augusto França, Almada Negreiros. O português sem mestre, Bertrand, Venda Nova, 1983.
José-Augusto França, O essencial sobre Almada Negreiros, Imprensa Nacional–Casa da Moeda, Lisbon, 2003.
Ellen Sapega, Ficções modernistas: um estudo da obra em prosa de José de Almada Negreiros, ICALP, Lisbon, 1992.
Further materials (slides, dossiers, critical articles, documents and visual materials) will be provided by the lecturer.
Contents
The course offers a historical-literary and critical-textual study of Portuguese modernisms from the late nineteenth to the twentieth century, relating texts and contexts, aesthetic change and political-cultural transformations. After an initial framework on modernism/avant-garde in Portugal (journals, manifestos, intervention texts and key critical categories), the course adopts a seminar-based and largely monographic focus on José de Almada Negreiros, regarded as a “total” modernist and a key figure of the Portuguese avant-garde. Particular emphasis is placed on his avant-garde prose (1915–1917) and on reconstructing his artistic trajectory from an intermedial perspective (writing, visual arts, performance), including major cultural nodes such as Paris (the Poética da Ingenuidade) and Madrid (the Teatro da Unidade project). The final part is devoted to an in-depth study of Nome de Guerra, widely regarded as a central case of the Portuguese modernist novel, alongside a selection of relevant theatrical and documentary texts.
Course Language
The main language of the course is Portuguese; Italian may also be used where necessary, including for methodological clarification. Texts will be read and discussed mainly in the original language, supported by published translations and/or translations and materials provided by the lecturer.
More information
Any edition of the primary texts may be used; specific guidance, if needed, will be provided by the lecturer. Additional materials and practical information (e.g. timetable, any updates, slides and excerpts) will be provided by the lecturer during the course. International students are welcome; where necessary, the lecturer will offer linguistic and bibliographical support and may agree study arrangements appropriate to the student’s language profile. For office hours and communications, students should follow the lecturer’s instructions.
Degrees
Degrees
MODERN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES AND CULTURES
Master’s Degree
2 years
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