Para uma leitura não biográfica da obra de Mário de Sá Carneiro (e uma apreciação de o modernismo em Mário de Sá-Carneiro de Fernando Cabral Martins)

Este artigo pretende sublinhar a importância de entender a obra de Mário de Sá- Carneiro através de uma leitura atenta da sua produção literária que não procura provas da “veracidade” dessa leitura na biografia do poeta do Orpheu. Partindo de uma análise do trabalho crítico de Fernando Cabral Martins, levanta-se a problemática de deturpar uma análise de crítica literária com abordagens influenciadas por normas de história da literatura que inserem a obra no seu contexto histórico, o que tem sido o caso na recepção da obra de Sá-Carneiro, onde o mito do autor tende a ofuscar o seu legado literário. Assim, este artigo questiona se em O Modernismo em Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Fernando Cabral Martins consegue libertar a obra sá-carneiriana da sombra do poeta biográfico, e oferece uma avaliação panorâmica da tradição crítica dedicada ao autor, apontando para casos de interpretações que se prenderam com questões que ficam para fora do texto, como tem sido o caso com a natureza homossexual da obra e do homem.

The most Portuguese village in Portugal: tradition in the age of its technical reproducibility

Ethnographic film is often associated with many European countries’ past as colonial powers and the way these countries used film to depict African, American and Asian territories and populations they once ruled. However, ethnographic film also has a European tradition of its own, closely interlaced with the history of ethnography and anthropology as autonomous sciences and with the desire of scholars to represent local, regional and national cultural identities. This paper presents a Portuguese attempt of this sort dating from 1938, when the authoritarian regime organized a national contest to determine which would be Portugal’s most “authentic” village – something other European countries also did. As part of this metonymic contribution to the construction of Portugal’s national identity as an agrarian utopia, a short documentary was shot, sponsored by the same official propaganda office that had organized the contest. In this film, the viewer’s gaze is made to coincide with the one of the national jury visiting the final selection of 12 villages and to whose benefit local scholars had organized all sorts of colourful peasant traditions hoping to cause the strongest impression. The film makes a strong case for the importance of ethnographic film as a relevant instance not only of the iteration of existing European national cultures, but also of the construction of so many of Europe’s national identities and traditions. Suffice to say that even today the village of “Monsanto”, which won the 1938 contest, is still referred to as “Portugal’s most Portuguese village”.

Humor impresso: cultura e política em O Espreitador do Mundo Novo

The aim of this paper is to identify, analyse and question the expressions of humour in O Espreitador do Mundo Novo, a monthly periodical published by José Daniel Rodrigues da Costa throughout 1802. It is a chapter of a PhD thesis in History and Theory of Ideas with the title “Correcting by laughter. Humour in Portuguese periodical press 1797-1834”. Positing humour as a social and cultural phenomenon, it is regarded here in a broad sense, comprehending wit, joke, ridicule, satire, jest, mockery, facetiousness or irony, displayed with recourse to various figures of speech. This interdisciplinary work intends listing and researching the themes and issues of the periodical and its targets, namely the social, age or gender stereotypes and to acknowledge its political stances. Another main purpose of this paper is to assess the role of humour as expressed in the printed periodical as a political and social weapon, criticizing ways (and which ways) and/or fashions, often ridiculing novelty just for being new in order to maintain the statu quo, and to establish in which senses humour was used in the context of late Ancien Régime and early liberalism culture. The humour of O Espreitador has also played a part in framing a public sphere in early nineteenth-century Portugal, as can be seen by the different “stages” and backgrounds where the monthly installments of the periodical take place: squares, coffee houses, fairgrounds, private houses, jailhouses, churches, public promenades, pilgrimages, bullfights, parties, the opera house – each of them a space of sociability and socialization. In this one, as in other periodicals of the time, printed humour stands at the crossroads of politics and culture, in spaces boldly widening before the reader. Albeit, there are quite a few loud silences in O Espreitador: not even the slightest remark to the church, the clergy or the Inquisition, only reverential references to the established order and the powers that be. The periodical criticizes the criticizers; it is against those who are against. The repeated disclaimers are intended not only to protect the author from libel suits or other litigation. They belong to a centuries-old tradition which, as early as the Middle Ages, has set apart escárnio (scorn) from maldizer (slander): José Daniel Rodrigues da Costa distinguishes satire from rebuking vice – a “cheerful criticism” forerunner of the ironic humour which was to become a trademark of Portuguese literature in the second half of the nineteenth century. Targeting those who deviate from the social norm (for example social climbers and older women who marry young men) or the followers of fashion (sometimes specifically “French fashion”), O Espreitador charges at liberal and progressive ideas. It ridicules the ways of the “New World” in order to perpetuate an idealized version of the “Old World”. Notwithstanding two exceptions – it condemns racism and bullfighting –, the humour of O Espreitador is conservative and conformist from a social and political standpoint.

Recensão: Michelangelo Sabatino, "Pride in Modesty: Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy"

Recensão de: Michelangelo Sabatino, "Pride in Modesty: Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy", Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011

Recensão: George Baker, “Late Criticism” in Canvases and Careers Today. Criticism and its Markets

Recensão de: George Baker, "'Late Criticism' in Canvases and Careers Today. Criticism and its Markets", Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2008

History of Art and Art Criticism: A System in Crisis

This article aims to reconstruct the critical debate regarding the examination of the crisis in the disciplines of art history and criticism with a particular focus on the proposal formulated by U.S. theorists who contributed to October journal. The discrediting of many modernist critical methods, particularly that of Clement Greenberg – the formalist diktat – marked the birth of the journal and gave rise to proposals set forth by critics committed to a new approach. Their divergent positions, nonetheless, have contributed to undermining the traditional concepts of the autonomy of art and criticism. The proposals discussed over the course of publication were the result of a reappraisal of the disciplinary instruments of art history and criticism pursuant to the crucial cultural changes which took place in the 1980s.

Santini ice creams: Co-Owning a tradition

The case studies the potential partnership between a small family business, rich in tradition, that sells ice cream in the Lisbon area and a recognized Portuguese family who runs a multinational business. The aim of this study is to address students to analyze the evolution of the small company by using the Agency and Resource-Based Theories and to outline a potentially successful co-ownership structure if the agreement were to take place. The particularity of the case regards considering and identifying the main Family Business issues to keep in mind when dealing with these types of firms.

The greener grass: da autorrepresentação em Alanis Morissette

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Literatura - Especialidade em Teoria da Literatura

Leaflets of botanical observation and criticism /by Edward L. Greene.

v.1 (1903-1906)

Leaflets of botanical observation and criticism /by Edward L. Greene.

v.2 (1910-1912)

Fashioning tradition : Maya huipiles in the Field Museum Collections / J. Claire Odland.

n.s. no.38(2006)