Women’s Voices in Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literature

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course is an introduction to contemporary literature written by women in Portugal, Brazil, and Lusophone Africa. We will start by asking the question “What is women’s literature?” and throughout the course we will discuss a variety of literary genres that will aid in our discussions about the portrayal of women’s lives, aspirations, and concerns in literature. We will examine the formal structure of crônicas, short stories, novels, and poetry and will evaluate how women from different cultures portray their role as individuals as well as in family and society. The course will also examine how their fictional works voice similar or differing concerns depending on the writers’ race, class, landscape, and origin. Some of the writers we will study include Natália Correia, Maria Judite de Carvalho, Clarice Lispector, Conceição Evaristo, Cíntia Moscovich, Lídia Jorge, and Paulina Chiziane. Taught in Portuguese.