HISP 441 - Portugal Meets ‘the Other’, Overseas: Portuguese Navigators from the 15th to 17th Century

In this course we will read travel accounts, official historiography, and literature from the period in which Portugal became the first European overseas empire. The Portuguese linked continents and cultures as never before traveling by sea; indeed this process can be understood as the first globalization because of the cultural cross-pollination that Portugal’s voyages stirred up. We will focus on analyzing the way in which the Portuguese managed to portray ‘the Other’ by two contrary discourses: Portugal’s providential mission, and the race for economical profit through trade and war in Africa and the Middle and Far East. We will also study the appropriation and resignification of these matters on works of literature and visual arts produced in the contemporary era. The course will be taught in Portuguese. Prerequisite(s): HISP 331 Alternate years. (4 Credits)