English Literature I

Code: LLT10862L

6 ECTS

Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours

Scientific Area: Literature

Teaching languages: Portuguese, English

Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese, English

Regime de Frequência: Presencial

Presentation

Transdisciplinary study of literature, informed by an aesthetic approach and by an analysis of the social and cultural practices. Focused on debates on questions of representation and identity, the curricular unit studies literary works of art of different genre of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Sustainable Development Goals

Educação de qualidade - Assegurar a educação inclusiva, e equitativa e de qualidade, e promover oportunidades de aprendizagem ao longo da vida para todos.

Igualdade de género - Alcançar a igualdade de gênero e empoderar todas as mulheres e meninas.

Redução das desigualdades - Reduzir as desigualdades dentro dos países e entre eles.

Paz e Justiça - Paz, justiça e instituições eficazes promover sociedades pacíficas e inclusivas par ao desenvolvimento sustentável, proporcionar o acesso à justiça para todos e construir instituições eficazes, responsáveis
e inclusivas em todos os níveis.

Learning Goals

1. To provide an historical and cultural overview of English Literature, giving students competences and tools to understand epochs and specific themes,
2. To study questions of self-representation, of forms of sensibility and of experience that construct narratives as knowable communities, constructing an image of the self and of society.
3. To study the current debates about questions of identity and culture;
4. To study the construction and the emergence of the self in the social and artistic context;
5. To analyse the interrelation between the areas of individual and social experience, private and public realms and the historical formations and social structures.
Students will acquire the capacity to work in an autonomous way and to be more competent readers, as well as to discuss and express their own opinions using the right terminology, valuing theoretical thought together with practice and being able to apply the literary and cultural concepts in a correct and adequate way.

Brief overview of the history of English Literature
2. Questions of representation, identity and fictionality - lives becoming stories
a. Literature as a plurality of distinct and possible worlds
b. The construction of the Self in literature
3. The contexts of experience and the construction of cultural landscapes
4. The medieval frame of mind religion and the individual
5. The Romantic Period: the inner Self.
a. Nature and the experience of subjectivity
b. Imagination and creativity
6. The Victorian Age: times of transition
a. the emergence of the Self in social contexts - the individual and society
7. Modern times: identity in question

Teaching Methods

The curricular unit is always taught in English language in collective in- sessions of theoretical and practical nature, prepared with previous readings by the students in order to motivate debate and dialogue around the pertinent questions of the syllabus, as well as to enhance full understanding of the topics. Thus, we consider as crucial the gradual autonomous work of students and their commitment outside classes. Students might be asked to present an individual or group work, either oral or written- Assessment is preferably continuous (2 moments - 50%+50%), but students can also sit a final exam (100%), should they choose this form of assessment. Both continuous and final assessments follow the norms set forth by the regulations of the University.