Portuguese 212 - Author, Authority, Authoritarianism: Writing and Resistance in the Portuguese-Speaking World
Writing/Resistance-Portuguese
Spring
2022
01
4.00
Malcolm Kenneth McNee
M W 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM
Smith College
POR-212-01-202203
Hatfield 206
mmcnee@smith.edu
POR 212-01, WLT 212-01
Introducing translated works by celebrated Portuguese-language writers, this course will explore
themes of resistance, including resistance to dictatorship, patriarchy, slavery, racism, and colonialism, but also more ambivalent postures of resistance toward authority assumed within particular forms of
expertise and knowledge production and deployment. Discussing fiction by Machado de Assis and
Clarice Lispector (Brazil), Mia Couto and Paulina Chiziane (Mozambique), Grada Kilomba
(Portugal/Germany), and Nobel laureate José Saramago (Portugal), we will consider historical contexts,
how their work resonates with our contemporary world, literature and fictionality as sites of resistance,
and the sometimes fraught dynamics they reveal between authorship and authority.
themes of resistance, including resistance to dictatorship, patriarchy, slavery, racism, and colonialism, but also more ambivalent postures of resistance toward authority assumed within particular forms of
expertise and knowledge production and deployment. Discussing fiction by Machado de Assis and
Clarice Lispector (Brazil), Mia Couto and Paulina Chiziane (Mozambique), Grada Kilomba
(Portugal/Germany), and Nobel laureate José Saramago (Portugal), we will consider historical contexts,
how their work resonates with our contemporary world, literature and fictionality as sites of resistance,
and the sometimes fraught dynamics they reveal between authorship and authority.