Space and Society in the Portuguese-Speaking World PORT4012

  • Academic Session: 2024-25
  • School: School of Modern Languages and Cultures
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
  • Typically Offered: Runs Throughout Semesters 1 and 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

Taking in literary and visual texts, this course explores how key issues in the Portuguese-speaking world, such as race, gender, class, identity, migration, and memory, are given spatial representation in spheres such as the nation, the city, the workplace, and the home. Though sessions will focus on individual examples, the course takes a comparative, decolonising perspective overall: what issues does the polycentric Lusophone world share? What aspects of its common heritage unite or divide it? How does it look from different standpoints? 

Timetable

16 x 1hr Seminar across semester 1 & 2 as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in SMLC and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Requirements of Entry

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into one of the SMLC Honours programmes, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Reading Diary (1600 words - 4 x 400 words) - 40%

Written-up Conference Paper (2400 words) - 60%

Main Assessment In: April/May

Are reassessment opportunities available for all summative assessments? Not applicable for Honours courses

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

Course Aims

This course aims to:

■ Introduce students to a range of literary and visual texts produced across the Portuguese-speaking world;

■ Place each text in its social and historical context and examine through a spatial lens how key issues in the Portuguese-speaking world are represented in literary and visual terms;

■ Apply an appropriate range of methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of literary, photographic, and filmic texts

■ Allow students to develop written and oral skills in a professional academic environment

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

 

■ Engage with a variety of social and cultural contexts from across the Portuguese-speaking world;

■ Analyse key themes in Lusophone literary, photographic, and visual texts through a spatio-social lens;

■ Participate in discussion and present arguments and ideas in formal presentations in a professional academic context;

■ Defend a critical analysis of a Portuguese-speaking text in written and oral form that engages effectively with primary and secondary reading

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.