Unit name | Urban Narratives in the Lusophone World |
---|---|
Unit code | HISP20091 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Professor. King |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit offers an in-depth investigation of the representation of the city in contemporary fictional narratives from Brazil. Through close analysis of a number of novels, short stories and films produced in the decades during and following the military regime of 1964-1985, students will be encouraged to view the city as a space upon which narratives of modernity and national identity are imposed, reproduced and contested. The discussion of these texts will centre on a range of debates and issues, from the representation of violence, race and marginality, to shifting conceptions of national and transnational identities. Analysis of the fiction of Rubem Fonseca will focus on the use of tropes borrowed from the detective genre to map networks of power in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Discussion of the work of João Gilberto Noll will centre on how his novels explore the fissures and gaps within the global city.
By the end of this unit, students will have:
2 contact hours weekly, consisting of informal lectures and seminars and including presentations and discussions.
1 x 2000 word essay (50%) testing ILO's 1-6
1 x 2 hour exam (50%) testing ILO's 1-6
Pixote (1981), directed by Héctor Babenco
Agosto (1990) by Rubem Fonseca
O som ao redor (2012), directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Lorde (2004) by João Gilberto Noll
Otsuka, Edu Teruki. Marcas da catástrofe: Experiência urbana e indústria cultural en Rubem Fonseca, João Gilberto Noll, e Chico Buarque (São Paulo: Nankin Editorial, 2001)
Süssekind, Flora (2002) ‘Deterritorialization and Literary Form: Brazilian
Contemporary Literature and Urban Experience,’ University of Oxford Centre for Brazilian Studies, Working Papers Series
[Texts may change from year to year]