Engagement Details
ENG 282: Once Upon A Place in Portugal: Exploring Portuguese Fiction
What to Expect
Study Abroad Location:
Porto and Lisbon, Portugal
Program Dates:
5/3/23-5/23/23
Course Description:
English 282 is designed to help students learn about literary fiction as a genre. To that end, we will learn about various elements of fiction, including plot, setting, character, conflict, symbol, and point of view. When studying these elements, it's useful to think about how they all work together to develop a central theme. In this particular English 282 course, students will critically read and analyze passages from a diverse group of Portuguese authors and their works, including but not limited to: Afonso Cruz's The Books that Devoured My Father and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen's The Girl from the Sea & Other Stories. By conducting our study in Portugal, the home country of these award-winning authors, we will focus on the importance of setting and how that translates into fictional works. Because many of these works are designed for children, they're designed both to instill national pride and to provide a literary "tour" of both Portuguese places and lore.
As a bonus, students will critically read and analyze selected passages from JK Rowling's internationally bestselling Harry Potter series. Rowling is, perhaps, the most well-known Portuguese-inspired English author. In the early 1990s, she lived in Porto and drew much inspiration from her surroundings; one of the questions this course will consider is: what makes Portugal, the oldest nation-state in Europe, so magical? This course requires a rigorous examination, through discussion and in writing, of the ways in which cultures are both sustained and merged via fictional texts, as well as how our host country and its surrounding areas still serve as a hot spot for creativity.
Term: Summer
Participation Instructions: See program requirements to determine student eligibility.