Working schedule

As you all know, I have diligently been marking your essays in the past few days :) My overall appraisal is that most students have major changes to do in their works. Taking into consideration the  importance of this work in the overall percentage of your final mark (35%) and also the fact that we are approaching the end of the semester, with all it implicates in the work load you are facing, I believe we could postpone the deadline of the second version to January 7 (the official beginning of the evaluation period for this 1st semester). This way you would have more time to improve your work and to deal with the myriad of critical suggestions that I provide, truly learning from this experience.

I would like to have your feedback on this hypothesis, please.

Scholarship

Erasmus Mundus Master's Programme with Erasmus Mundus scholarship. Application for the 2013/2014 academic year.

The 2-year-long (120 ECTS) European Master Course TEMA – European Territories (Civilisation, Nation, Region, City): Identity and Development proposes the analysis of political use and scientific representation of territorial units (civilization, nation, region, city) in an interdisciplinary, research-based curriculum.
The Erasmus Mundus programme offers two categories of scholarships to students selected by the consortium. The number of available scholarships is defined on a yearly basis.

More info at www.mastertema.eu

Civil Rights Movement

Timeline 1
Timeline 2
Timeline 3 

Since we all had some doubts about the Civil Rights Movement, here are a few Timelines for you to check.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963), where Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

William Carlos Williams and Painting

Landscape with The Fall of Icarus, ca. 1590-95

Circle of P. Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569)

Oil on wood (63x90 cm), Museum van Buuren, Brussels

I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, 1928
Charles Demuth (1883–1935)
Oil on cardboard (90.2 x 76.2 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

More on this painting here.

Here are the poems. The first establishes an ekphrastic relation with Bruegel's painting, the later inspired Demuth to make this abstract portrait of his friend Williams.

"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"

According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring

a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry

of the year was
awake tingling
near

the edge of the sea
concerned 
with itself

sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax

unsignificantly
off the coast
there was

a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning

"The Great Figure"

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

Calendário 3

-->

Novembro

14

Greve geral

19 David e Marta (William Carlos Williams)

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

“How It Feels to Be Colored Me”

http://grammar.about.com/od/60essays/a/theireyesessay.htm

21 Áurea, Carla e Tânia

Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God

26 Samanta e Raquel

Their Eyes Were Watching God

28

Eudora Welty (1909-2001)

“Place in Fiction”

Dezembro

3 Madalena

William Faulkner (1897-1962)

“That Evening Sun”

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/white/anthology/faulkner.html

5 Elif e Guizem

Eudora Welty

The Golden Apples

10

The Golden Apples

12

Revisões e esclarecimento de dúvidas

17 Trazer impressos comentários feitos no blogue

Teste escrito

19

Reflexões finais

Avant-Garde Cinema in the US

Richard Peña, Professor of Film Studies in Columbia University, New York, and Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, responsible for the New York Film Festival in the last 25 years, will be in FLUL next Friday,  
November 16, to speak about "Discovering the American Avant-Garde Cinema."
10:30 - 12:30 // Room D. Pedro V
More about Richard Peña

Their eyes were watching God - by Zora Neale Hurston

Hi guys, on Monday the 26th we will be doing a presentation on Zora Neale Hurston´s Their Eyes Were Watching God

We recommend those of you who have not read the novel yet to watch the movie which you can find on YouTube, because we feel it is very faithful to the novel even though it´s not like reading the actual words. 

We will be focusing our presentation on the storytelling aspects and style of writing that Zora Neale Hurston uses in this very unique novel. 

For those of you who have had the privilege of reading the novel, you will have noticed the unique dialect that Hurston uses throughout the novel to represent the African American culture.

• We would like you to comment on this aspect, whether you enjoyed it, whether you found it difficult etc and why?
• We would also like you to comment on the following excerpt found in chapter 6 and how you think it shows (or not) the storytelling aspect and dialect present throughout the novel.

“Dat mule uh yourn, Matt. You better go and see ´bout him. He´s bad off”

“where ´bout? Did he wade in de lake and uh alligator ketch him?”

“Worser´n dat. De womenfolks got yo´mule. When ah come round de lake ´bout noontime mah wife and some others had ´im flat on de ground usin´ his sides fuh uh wash board.”

The great clap of laughter that they have been holding in, bursts out. Sam never craks a smile. “Yeah, Matt, dat mule so skinny till de women is usin´his rib bones fuh uh rub-board, and hangin´ things out on his hock-bones tuh dry.

We hope you enjoyed the novel as much as we did and we look forward to your input,

Célia Raquel Pestana Martins

Samanta Teixeira de Mello

Their Eyes Were Watching God – by Zora Hurston (1937)

Hello everyone!

On November 21^st we will be presenting on Zora Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches” – chapter II, page 8

In our presentation we will be talking about Janie’s development as a character and the influence the following characters have on her growing.

•         Janie’s Grandmother
•        Logan Killicks (1^st husdand)
•        Joe Stark (2^nd husband)
•        Tea Cake (3^rd husband)

“(…) Years ago, she had told her girl self to wait for her in the looking glass. It had been a long time since she had remembered. Perhaps she’d better look. She went over to the dresser and looked hard at her skin and features. The young girl was, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair. The weight, the length, the glory was there. She took careful stock of herself, then combed her hair and tied it back again” (page 87)

• -       What does this passage represent on Janie’s life?
• -       What is the symbolism of her hair during the story?
• -       What kind of feelings/reactions the three husbands raise on Janie?

    We are looking forward for your comments and ideas!!!

     

    Aurea Teixeira

    Carla Neves

    Tânia Fortunato

William Carlos Williams

Hey everybody!
Next Wednesday we are going to do a presentation on William Carlos Williams. We will be talking about his life, style and will also be discussing two poems, one of which was also discussed during the session with Jeffrey Childs. Feel free to comment and discuss the poems, any suggestions and ideas will be welcomed and helpful!!

A Love Song
(one of the poems discussed in the session with Jeffrey Childs)

What have I to say to you
When we shall meet?
Yet—
I lie here thinking of you.
The stain of love
Is upon the world.
Yellow, yellow, yellow,
It eats into the leaves,
Smears with saffron
The horned branches that lean
Heavily
Against a smooth purple sky. There is no light—
Only a honey-thick stain
That drips from leaf to leaf
And limb to limb
Spoiling the colours
Of the whole world. I am alone.
The weight of love
Has buoyed me up
Till my head
Knocks against the sky. See me!
My hair is dripping with nectar—
Starlings carry it
On their black wings.
See, at last
My arms and my hands
Are lying idle. How can I tell
If I shall ever love you again
As I do now?



- what do you think of the title?
- starts and ends with a question
- self-reflexive
- imagery, synesthesia and synecdoche - physical but mainly emotional and psychological impact and effect that an encounter has had on the poetic subject
- automnal atmosphere
- parallelism with a tree - crossing of/between the organic world and the human reality
- "there is no light" - autumn anticipates winter; just like the poetic subject is in the clouds and can already anticipate his own fall
- doubt
- feeling of being lost



The Young Housewife


At ten AM the young housewife
moves about in negligee behind
the wooden walls of her husband's house.
I pass solitary in my car. Then again she comes to the curb
to call the ice-man, fish-man, and stands
shy, uncorseted, tucking in
stray ends of hair, and I compare her
to a fallen leaf. The noiseless wheels of my car
rush with a crackling sound over
dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling.
In regards to „The Young Housewife“ we would like to give you a few hints on how to understand the poem, just to give you a direction for the discussion, without telling too much about our own ways of interpreting it:

- poem as a comment on social inequality
- division into 2 spheres (male sphere, female sphere)
- voyeurism and female objectification
- carpe diem/ memento mori
- potential of change (?)

David Klein Martins and Marta Horta e Costa

Langston Hughes (12th November)

James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an African-American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue" which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue".

Poem of our choice: Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too?

Over There,

            World War II.

                                             

Dear Fellow Americans,

I write this letter

Hoping times will be better

When this war

Is through.

I'm a Tan-skinned Yank

Driving a tank.

I ask, WILL V-DAY

BE ME-DAY, TOO?

I wear a U. S. uniform.

I've done the enemy much harm,

I've driven back

The Germans and the Japs,

From Burma to the Rhine.

On every battle line,

I've dropped defeat

Into the Fascists' laps.

I am a Negro American

Out to defend my land

Army, Navy, Air Corps—

I am there.

I take munitions through,

I fight—or stevedore, too.

I face death the same as you do

Everywhere.

I've seen my buddy lying

Where he fell.

I've watched him dying

I promised him that I would try

To make our land a land

Where his son could be a man—

And there'd be no Jim Crow birds

Left in our sky.

So this is what I want to know:

When we see Victory's glow,

Will you still let old Jim Crow

Hold me back?

When all those foreign folks who've waited—

Italians, Chinese, Danes—are liberated.

Will I still be ill-fated

Because I'm black?

Here in my own, my native land,

Will the Jim Crow laws still stand?

Will Dixie lynch me still

When I return?

Or will you comrades in arms

From the factories and the farms,

Have learned what this war

Was fought for us to learn?

When I take off my uniform,

Will I be safe from harm—

Or will you do me

As the Germans did the Jews?

When I've helped this world to save,

Shall I still be color's slave?

Or will Victory change

Your antiquated views?

You can't say I didn't fight

To smash the Fascists' might.

You can't say I wasn't with you

in each battle.

As a soldier, and a friend.

When this war comes to an end,

Will you herd me in a Jim Crow car

Like cattle?

Or will you stand up like a man

At home and take your stand

For Democracy?

That's all I ask of you.

When we lay the guns away

To celebrate

Our Victory Day

WILL V-DAY BE ME-DAY, TOO?

That's what I want to know.

            Sincerely,

                GI Joe.

We shall talk about:

-          * The way the poem is written, being as it is in the form of a letter directed to the “White Americans”;

-                    *  Where it is placed in time, which is World War II;

-                  * The poetic subject’s wish to be free from the “Jim Crows birds” (during our presentation we will explain the meaning of this and how it affects this poem in particular);

-                  * How this poem may influenced the appearance of the American Civil Rights Movement;

We think it is a simple poem that reaches to all of us. It is the struggle of an African-American that wishes him and his “brothers” to have the right to be as much of citizens of America as the “White Americans”.  To have the right to truly call themselves “free”.

Enjoy!

Neuza Machado 

Sara Costa

The HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Take a look at this site about the  
HARLEM RENAISSANCE.

It provides information about several areas, namely education, performers, French connection, literature, political issues, religion, and philosophy.