News News: Call for Papers: Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies “Teaching Literatures in Portuguese”

Guest Editors: Ana Bela Almeida (University of Liverpool) and Joana Meirim (Universidade Católica de Lisboa). Please send an abstract of up to 300 words before September 30, 2021.

The teaching of literature, whether at secondary or university level, has always provoked the recurrent, and controversial, question: "What is it good for, really?"  Well-worn debates about the autonomy of literature vs. its social function, its usefulness or uselessness, suggest the ethical and political dilemmas that teachers and institutions face when teaching literary texts.

Thinking about the aims of literary pedagogy implies a reflection on which texts and literary genres should be taught, how to differentiate between teaching in the original or in translation, which pedagogical approaches should be employed, and how established canons can be critically revised in the light of ongoing debates regarding decolonization, gender equality, and environmentalism, among others. These questions are especially pertinent with regard to literatures in Portuguese, given Portugal's historical role as a colonizing power.

This special issue aims to gather articles on teaching literatures in Portuguese that deal with questions of canonicity, syllabus design, intercultural reading approaches, teaching in translation, teaching language, history, and culture(s) through literature, etc. We aim to explore, examine, and disseminate best practices and promote a debate that involves both teachers and students, in secondary schools and in higher education, both in the Portuguese-speaking countries and elsewhere.

Articles (in English or Portuguese) are invited on the following non-exhaustive list of themes:

• The literary canon and national curricula in Portuguese-speaking countries (textbooks and syllabus design); 
• Teaching literatures in Portuguese in the context of decolonizing the curriculum;
• Literatures in Portuguese in the context of intercultural education;
• Methodological reflections, innovations, and debates on teaching literatures in Portuguese;
• Teaching literatures in Portuguese and new media/genres (song lyrics, graphic novels, digital picture books, flash fiction, etc.);
• Teaching in translation: text selection, availability, specific challenges, and other considerations;
• Teaching Portuguese language and literatures: an integrated syllabus or worlds apart?

Please send an abstract of up to 300 words to PLCS Executive Editor Mario Pereira (mpereira6@umassd.edu) before September 30, 2021. The proposals will be selected and authors informed by October 10, 2021.

Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by Tagus Press in the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth: https://ojs.lib.umassd.edu/index.php/plcs/index.