LUSO-AFRO-BRAZILIAN LITERATURE, CINEMA, AND INTERDISCIPLINARY THINKING
UCLA (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES)
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GRADUATE SEMINAR: EXPANDED BRAZILIAN POETRY (FALL 22)
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UNDERGRADUATE CLASS: LUSO-BRAZILIAN LITERARY SHORT-FORMS (FALL 22)
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GRADUATE SEMINAR: THE OBSESSIONS OF LUSO-BRAZILIAN POETS (FALL 2020)
The Obsessions of Modern Luso-Brazilian Poets focuses, from a postcolonial perspective, on some of the obsessions nurtured by Brazilian and Portuguese poets of the 20th and 21st centuries — and on the variation of these differences between each respective country. Some of these obsessions focus on the question of uselessness (or, rather, of drawing pleasure from being useless), identity, the problems posed by the interdisciplinary or monodisciplinary poem, the expansion of Greco-Latin culture in the modern world, the political or aesthetic resistance, or humor. While these problems are not particular to the Portuguese-Brazilian world, they remain fundamental to understanding the most recent interests driving the central themes and problems of their poetic universes.
Desterro-Desmadre by Isaac Giménez DMV by Saraí Jaramillo 
La Magnitude de la Tragedia by Pedro Cuevas
GRADUATE SEMINAR: LANGUAGE, EXPERIMENTALISM, AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN BRAZILIAN LITERATURE OF THE 20th AND 21th CENTURIES (FALL 2019) Language, Experimentalism, and Interdisciplinarity proposed the comparative, theoretical, and visual approach of several Brazilian authors who produced literary, experimental, and interdisciplinary works between the 1920s and the 2000s. Among some of these authors were Oswald de Andrade, Clarice Lispector, brothers Campos, Arnaldo Antunes, Lenora de Barros, or Paulo Bruscky. The aforementioned interdisciplinar works produced between these decades question the effectiveness of current academic instruments and, at the same time, require the re-elaboration or amplification of the hermeneutic instruments of literary criticism. This class also hinged on a practical component. Throughout the quarter students produced technical analyses of verbal, visual, and audiovisual poems in preparation for the application of these same techniques in the creation of their own interdisciplinary poem. Hélio by Claudio Ramos
Controlo by Isaac Giménez
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UNDERGRADUATE CLASS: A TRANSATLANTIC MIND: POSTCOLONIAL BRAZIL AND PORTUGAL (FALL 2020)
A Transatlantic Mind: Postcolonial Brazil and Portugal proposes a post-colonial and interdisciplinary approach to both Brazilian and Portuguese cultures through the analysis of literary texts, film, music, and performance. Studying the Portuguese colonization of Brazil and the ideological ambitions and the projects of fascist regimes in Portugal and Brazil in the early 20th century sets the foundation to understanding multiple cultural, literary, artistic, and social phenomena related to both countries. This class will study these movements by centering minorities — racial identities, gender and sexuality, and social class — and will explore their presence in modern Portugal and Brazil.
UNDERGRADUATE CLASS: BRAZILIAN FILM (WINTER 2020)
Brazilian FIlm introduced different key aspects of Brazilian culture through a variety of cinematographic objects. This course offered students an introduction to significant works, concepts, and theories of Brazilian cinema as well as the necessary and adequate tools for the analysis of creative practices or inter-artistic relations. By using empathy as our analytical lens, this class approached themes such as race, gender, sexuality, and social class. Some of the directors watched and analyzed in this class were Glauber Rocha, Fellipe Barbosa, Anna Muylaert, Daniela Thomas, Hilton Lacerda, or Karim Ainouz. This class also hinged on a practical component. Throughout the quarter students produced technical analyses of the films in preparation for the application of these same techniques in the creation of their own short film. Quarantine, because by Christian Herrera Byron by Laura Czerniecki Lost by Jiaxing and Jiawang Chen Gracia y Gracias by Blanca Quijada
Short film by Elisa Ciappi
INDEPENDENT STUDIES (2019-2021)
Independent study is an alternative education program that addresses individual student needs and learning styles. The model allows students to complete their academics outside the traditional classroom setting.
The Philosophy of Books by Bella Laferty
A poem for "Westwood" by Ícaro Carvalho UNDERGRADUATE CLASS: MODERNISM, MODERNITY, AND IDENTITY (WINTER 2020) Building upon an anticolonial perspective, Modernism, Modernity, and Identity introduced different types of interaction between Brazilian and Portuguese literatures, cultures, and visual arts. The analysis of certain ideas, which were conceptualized in the beginning of the 20th century by Luso-Brazilian intellectuals, such as childhoood, primitivismo, antropofagia cultural, nationality, quinto império, antilogocentrism, or the centrality of visual thought, guided an inclusive analysis of more recent literary and artistic objects and processes of political resistance expressed in literature and music. This class also hinged on a practical component, i.e., students were asked to create a verbivocovisual poem and, as their final project, an artist book. 
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ILLUSTRATION WORKSHOPS ON POETRY
(UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, PORTUGAL, MEXICO) |
MUSIC WORKSHOPS ON LITERATURE
(UNITED STATES) |
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Illustration Workshops on Poetry consist of translating verbal literary language into a series of illustrations. In order to reach that discursive transition, texts are thoroughly examined by participants and closely analyzed in group discussion. From 2015 up to the present, these workshops were conducted in several academic, cultural and social institutions (UC Santa Barbara, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, ANEIS — Associação Nacional [Estudo e Intervenção na Sobredotação], Universidad de Yucatán, Flâneur, Rosa Imunda, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Biblioteca Roberto Piva, El Centro Community Center, and The Women's Center [UC Santa Barbara]).
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Music Workshops on Literature consist of translating verbal literary language into music. In order to reach that discursive transition, texts are thoroughly examined by participants and closely analyzed in group discussion. The first of these exercises, Ovid's Metamorphoses in Rap Songs (2018), was integrated in an undergraduate class on major literary works at the Comparative Literature Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. None of the 50 students in this class studied Literature. The integration of such exercise not only helped students to better understand the texts, but also increased their interest on every taught character and myth.
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VIDEO WORKSHOPS ON CINEMA
(UNITED STATES) Video Workshops on Cinema consist of adapting and reinterpreting a cinematographic object. The first of these exercises was included in two classes respectively about Brazilian Cinema and Portuguese Cinema at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After discussing various films and put into practice film techniques such as dutch angles, slow motion, match cuts, close-ups, or jump cuts throughout the quarter, students were asked to make a reinterpretation—comedic or not, modern or not—of one object taught in class. The video below gathers shots from several short films made and presented by PORT 129 (Portuguese Cinema) and PORT 130 (Brazilian Cinema) students in April of 2019.
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