The Pedagogical Congresses of Portuguese Secondary Teaching : the participation of female teachers (1927-1928)

This paper was written within the context of the research project “The development of teacher’ associative organizations and unionism (1889-1990)” funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology). Five important congresses about secondary education were organized in Portugal between 1927 and 1931. These congresses served to claim the rights of teachers and the consolidation of the class, as well as to promote the discussion of scientific and pedagogical problems. In these congresses, the presence of female teachers was residual. However, the few teachers who participated had a significant contribution to the definition of secondary education during the following decades. Among other issues, it contributed to the discussion of female education and to analyze the importance of Biology and Physical Education in high schools. This paper presents the analysis of the minutes of the 1927s and 1928s Congresses. This analysis allowed the assessment of the important role played by a group of teachers to define, at the end of the first third of the 20th century, the future guidelines of Portuguese secondary education. It also reported that these teachers were pioneers who opened the way for the increasing number of teachers in secondary education during the 20th century.

Into the silence of the objects : analyzing Samuel Beckett’s nothingness

Os objetos têm sempre desempenhado um papel fundamental nas nossas vidas, pela forma como eles, passivamente, fazem-nos companhia e transmitem tacitamente a sua quietude inata. Contudo, o que acontece quando os objetos se tornam uma presença tão poderosa que, como resultado, dominam a vida das pessoas? Noutras palavras, o que é que acontece quando os objetos sobrecarregam as pessoas com as suas potentes (falando literalmente, sempre lá) presenças? No silêncio dos objetos há um lugar onde nos tornamos conscientes da nossa insignificância, da nossa crise de identidade,ansiedade de linguagem e entorpecimento. Mas nas peças Endgame e Act without Words I de Samuel Beckett, o dramaturgo gradualmente capta a inutilidade da vida das personagens principais e a transformação das suas mentes e corpos numa coleção de objetos arquivados. Sem interagir com outras pessoas e por se autoencarcerarem estas personagens de Beckett esquecem-se o que é ser humano e tornam-se «uma não-coisa, nada». Pode haver um facto perturbador nesta realização, e, sem dúvida, até mesmo uma infeliz aliteração; mesmo assim, o que é ainda mais chocante é que estas personagens são paradigmáticas em relação ao que significa ter pisado uma aniquilação prematura ontológica e existencial. Estas são agora objetos abandonados entre outros objetos, uma espécie de coleção ineficaz. Com base nestes argumentos, este ensaio mostra uma tremenda influência de Beckett no desenvolvimento da teoria da descarnalizaçao e da desmaterialização do corpo e mente do povo, culminando na revolução tecnológica onde queremos ser empilhados dentro de incontáveis arquivos de computador. O principal argumento propõe uma reflexão sobre como podemos pôr em perigo a nossa sofisticação emocional e social, jogando este complicado «jogo» digital.

A matter of fundamentals : sound and silence in the radio drama of Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett was arguably one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Known for his stage plays, including the renowned En attendant Godot (1948), Beckett’s contribution to the field of radio drama is often overlooked. His corpus of radio dramas included some of the most innovativeradio works of the post-World War II period. For Beckett, radio drama was not exclusively verbocentric, for he always maintained that his work was “a matter of fundamental sounds (no joke intended) made as fully as possible” (Frost 362). His (radio) drama aesthetics defined a strict hierarchy of sound whereby the dramatist balances sound effects, music and the characters’ dialogue – and the use of silence. In this essay, I examine the juxtaposition of sound and silence in Samuel Beckett’s most influential radio dramas: All That Fall, Embers, Words and Music and Cascando. In the end, this essay will show that the sounds and silence employed in Beckett’s radio dramatic works were inextricably linked, which added to the overall meaning of his dramas.