Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Topic: AFRO-Brazilian Experience
Note: Open to graduate students only

Brazil is home to the largest African-descendant population outside Africa. In recent decades, growing cultural and political ties with the continent have sparked renewed literary and scholarly interest in Black Brazilian experiences. This seminar explores those experiences through literature, history, and sociology, with a special focus on life-writing—narratives inspired by the lived experiences of Afro-Brazilian. We will begin with Quitubia (1791), the first Brazilian literary work to feature an African character, and Úrsula (1859), by Maria Firmina dos Reis, Brazil’s first female novelist. From there, we will examine mid-20th-century texts including works from the Black Experimental Theater and excerpts from Carolina Maria de Jesus’s diaries. The course concludes with contemporary authors, such as Conceição Evaristo, Ana Maria Gonçalves, and Paulo Lins (Cidade de Deus). Themes of race, gender, class, and diaspora will guide our discussions. Readings and class discussion in Portuguese.

HISP-P 751     #31689       2:20P-3:35P    TR      BH 318       Prof. Luciana Namorato