| Unit name | Pushing the boundaries: sex and gender in Lusophone literature |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HISP30053 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Atkin |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
N/A |
| Co-requisites |
N/A |
| School/department | Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit analyses the way in which Lusophone authors over the twentieth century have used literary texts to push social and political boundaries, and to explore issues relating to gender and sexuality, social and political practices, and more broadly, personal freedom. The unit will examine the ways in which the authors studied push the boundaries of reading expectations with their textual practice, and it will investigate how literary creativity and narrative form is linked to the authors’ desire to explore more deeply issues of gendered performance, sexuality, social relationships and political context in Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa.
Aims: • To develop students’ understanding of the interrelatedness of sexuality, gender, politics and society, in the Lusophone world and beyond. • To familiarise students with the growing secondary literature that deals with the gender and sexuality studies. • To develop further students’ skills of textual analysis and independent research. •
By the end of the module students will be able to demonstrate the following: Subject-specific: • a detailed knowledge of the texts studied and an understanding of their context in Lusophone history and culture; • a detailed knowledge of the theoretical debates studied (especially gender and sexuality studies); • an ability to analyse and interpret the form of individual texts, and relate this to their content; • an understanding of how the texts studied may be related to one another, in thematic, theoretical and formal terms; • an understanding and appropriate use of a range of terminology related to the study of literature, gender and sexualities. Generic: • the ability to engage with and contribute to critical debates; • the ability to interpret and analyse literary texts and relate them to their cultural context; • the ability to identify and select appropriate sources of information and relate these to the subject studied in a process of research-based learning.
The unit will be taught in a combination of tutor- and student-led teaching, predominantly in seminar format but with a small number of introductory lectures.
One written assignment of 5000 words (100%, summative). The long assignment will allow students to engage thoroughly and reflect on the subjects studied, and to demonstrate their understanding of, and ability to use, key theoretical concepts in their interpretation of the texts studied. It will also allow for a comparative approach, facilitating students’ understanding of the links which may be made between specific parts of the Lusophone world.
Anthony Elliot, Concepts of the Self, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008)
The Polity Reader in Gender Studies (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994)
Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, 3rd edn (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009)
Hilary Owen, Mother Africa, Father Marx: Women’s Writing in Mozambique 1948-2002 (Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2002)
Text-specific reading lists will be made available on Blackboard. The literary texts studied may vary from one year to the next.
