Themes of Portuguese Culture I
Cod: 53042
Department: DH
ECTS: 15
Scientific area: Portuguese Literature and Culture
Total working hours: 390
Total contact time: 60

This curricular unit aims to provide the conditions for the development of knowledge, as well as for the reflective process, which is so necessary in our teaching and learning system.

In the History of the Portuguese Theatre, the year 1836 stands out for the fact that a decree was published that evaluates the state of our theatre, proposing, for the first and perhaps only time, measures that contemplate the various aspects of the theatrical phenomenon. This moment, guided by cultural concerns that reflect ideological and political options, will be our starting context for studying various dramatic texts in a period that will span about a century. Through the reading and analysis of these texts, we will recognise how some authors recreated the past, by interpreting the factual, according to certain convictions or purposes. Others have externalized, in written and spectacular productions aesthetically differentiated, values that help to understand and interpret the mentalities and social practices of the times in which they lived.

Portuguese theatre; romanticism; symbolist theatre; realistic aesthetics.

Throughout this Curricular Unit, the student must:

 • be in touch with the Portuguese historical, social and cultural context of the period under study (1836-1926), in a diachronic view of the main moments in the history of Portuguese theatre;

 • problematize the relations between History and Literature, with regard specifically to the historical drama of the Romantic period;

• research, organize and study in a critical way the programmatic texts related to the dramatic and theatrical aesthetics of the period under study;

 • to look at the romantic and naturalistic dramaturgical models and their respective scenic languages;

• relate the dramas with their respective production contexts.

The curricular unit is organized in thematic units that will develop the following contents:

 • Historical, social and cultural context of Portugal (1836-1926).

 • The relations between History and Literature in the dramatic production of the Romantic period.

 • The finissecular period and symbolist dramatic production.

 • The dramatic text as a mirror of an era: naturalistic theatre in the 1st Republic.

 • Analysis of the following dramatic texts: Frei Luís de Sousa (Almeida Garrett), O Fim (António Patrício), Zilda (Alfredo Cortez), O Gebo e a Sombra (Raul Brandão).

Reference text:

Rebello, Luiz Francisco. Três espelhos: uma visão panorâmica do teatro português. Do Liberalismo à Ditadura (1820-1926). Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 2010.

 Supporting texts:

Bastos, Glória; Vasconcelos, Ana Isabel P. Teixeira de. O Teatro em Lisboa no Tempo da Primeira República. Lisboa: Museu do Teatro, 2004.

Buescu, Helena Carvalhão (Org.). Dicionário do Romantismo Literário Português. Lisboa: Caminho, 1997.

França, José-Augusto. O Romantismo em Portugal. Estudo de factos socioculturais. 2.ª ed. Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 1993.

Gossman, Lionel. Between History and Literature. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1990.

Pruner. Michel. L’Analyse du texte de Théâtre. Paris: Dunod, 1998.

Saviotti, Gino. "Teoria de Teatro em Portugal, de Garrett aos nossos dias". In Bulletin d’Histoire du Théâtre Portugais. Lisbonne: Institut Français au Portugal (tome I - n. 2), 1950, pp. 121-152.

Vasconcelos, Ana Isabel P. Teixeira de. O Teatro em Lisboa no Tempo de Almeida Garrett. Lisboa: Museu do Teatro, 2003.

 Dramatic texts:

“Frei Luís de Sousa” e “Memória ao Conservatório”, Almeida Garrett

“O Fim”, António Patrício

“Zilda”, Alfredo Cortez

“O Gebo e a Sombra”, Raul Brandão

Other articles will be available along the contents development.

The teaching-learning process is developed in a distance learning regime based on an online pedagogy contemplated in the Virtual Pedagogical Model of UAb, by using an e-learning platform.

This process starts from the reading of bibliography selected according to the content of the themes, followed by the debate in forum, which requires an active and reflective participation of the students, who will always be accompanied by the teacher.

In 3 of the 5 themes are requested activities that require individual writing works (review, commentary, critical analysis of a dramatic text).

Thus, the student's work will develop at three levels:

 • Reading the material available on the platform.

 • Study and discussion of bibliography and articles, using the forum available on the platform.

 • Written works.

The assessment will take into account several elements set out below:

 • 20% – Participation in the forums

 • 20% – Critical review

 • 20% – Comment

 • 40% – Final work