#lusophone studies

[cucullas]

It’s been 8 years since I finished my Portuguese mayor at a public French Uni. It was a lusophone ride on the most chaotic and disrespected departement that uni had  : 

Portuguese departement was a branch of the Spanish one. Nobody in the Spanish departement care abt the Portuguese class or students. Many times they didn not have our attendance list. 

One time we were having class and a Russian teacher and her students appeared, they said they have booked the classroom. We call admin. Thye make us leave. We wandered the halls and ended the class at the cafeteria. 

We had 5 main professor, 3 Portuguese, 2 Brazilians one from Sao Paulo one from Rio, and a superstart teacher born in Mozambique who created a “Lusophone Africa History” course for fun. 

Student were many from Cabo Verde, many French with Portuguese heritage, some Brazilians. And people who didn’t want to go to either Spanish or Italian. I’m people. 

We had separate course for Brazilian Portuguese and Portugal Portuguese in the first levels and then joint classes for the advance levels.

Portuguese Portuguese Teacher: “Who is learning Brazilian? Yeah well, you can forget all this chapter after the exam, nobody says that in Brazil.”

Brazilian Portuguese Teacher: “How would it look like with mesoclise?... I’m so glad we got rid of that in Brasil, wait a sec let me see...”

Mozambican Portuguese Teacher: “I personally think Angolan Portuguese is a delight and the best accent of the language, but that’s my biased opinion”

Mandatory reads I remember: Os Maias by Eça de Queiroz (PT), Mensagem by Pessoa (PT), Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis (BR), O pagador de Promessa (BR) braver people than me read Cançao by Camoes (PT) and Grande Sertao: Veredas by João de Guimeraes (BR)

So many Luis Fernando Verissimo and Eça de Queiroz short stories and so many Lya Luft poems (one teacher was a fan)

Movies we watched: O Auto da Compadecida (BR), O Pagador de Promessa (BR) Cidade de Deus (BR) O Primo Basilio (BR) O crimen do Padre Amaro (PT) la Cage Doree (French movie we all hated a bit)

We also listened to too many Bossa Nova song and entirely too much Amalia Rodrigues but also some of the best recs we had: Raul Seixas, Deolinda, Diabo na Cruz and Legiao Urbana

Autor all teachers hated: Paulo Coelho. Only autor Portuguese Speaking authour we knew starting the career : Paulo Fucking Coelho. 

A virtual obrigada for all my teachers and faculty it was a fun lusophone ride. 

[redheadbigshoes]

in lusophone communities, people associate neopronouns with xenopronouns or nounself pronouns (but they are very performative in portuguese because our language isn't only about pronouns, eg. suffixes (-e/-o/-a) and grammatical articles (a/o/ê, um/uma/ume)). but elu and ile are technically neopronouns. and delu & dile are contractions, not pronouns lol. ê is a neoarticle (neoartigo, pesquise). and people try to call neosuffixes as neodesinences but not every suffix/word ending is a desinence. suffix is also a generalization.

enfim, I study it a lot because it's part of my hyperfocus/hyperfixation. and these are forms of neolanguage (neolinguagem, pesquise). in spanish community they reject the term because it sounds like neolengua (newspeak/novílingua, a term used by (anti)stalinists). neolanguage includes neoarticles and neosuffixes, neoconjuncts (neoconjuntos, such as u/ilu/-y).

some people also reject the term gender-neutral language as a way to group all neolanguage, because not every neopronoun is neutrally gendered and they try to unlink/unleash gender from it (because women also use neopronouns and it doesn't make them any less female because of it). but sometimes I find these conceptualizations as too idealistic. in an everyday world, I prefer handy terms or to be simple for lay people. more like homocore situationism

Unfortunately I think it’s going to take a long time until people actually start using those pronouns (besides the LGBTQ+ community).

But this is very interesting to know, thank you for the information!

[pennstateuniversitypress]

Unlocked Book of the Month: Consensus and Debate in Salazar's Portugal

Each month we’re highlighting a book available through PSU Press Unlocked, an open access initiative featuring scholarly digital books and journals in the humanities and social sciences.

About our September pick:

Ellen Sapega’s study documents artistic responses to images of the Portuguese nation promoted by Portugal’s Office of State Propaganda under António de Oliveira Salazar. Combining archival research with current theories informing the areas of memory studies, visual culture, women’s autobiography, and postcolonial studies, the author follows the trajectory of three well-known cultural figures working in Portugal and its colonies during the 1930s and 1940s. The book begins with an analysis of official Salazarist culture as manifested in two state-sponsored commemorative events: the 1938 contest to discover the “Most Portuguese Village in Portugal” and the 1940 Exposition of the Portuguese-Speaking World. While these events fulfilled their role as state propaganda, presenting a patriotic and unambiguous view of Portugal’s past and present, other cultural projects of the day pointed to contradictions inherent in the nation’s social fabric. In their responses to the challenging conditions faced by writers and artists during this period and the government’s relentless promotion of an increasingly conservative and traditionalist image of Portugal, José de Almada Negreiros, Irene Lisboa, and Baltasar Lopes subtly proposed revisions and alternatives to official views of Portuguese experience. These authors questioned and rewrote the metaphors of collective Portuguese and Lusophone identity employed by the ideologues of Salazar’s Estado Novo regime to ensure and administer the consent of the national populace. It is evident, today, that their efforts resulted in the creation of vital, enduring texts and cultural artifacts.

Read more and access the book here: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-03410-2.html

See the full list of Unlocked titles here: https://www.psupress.org/unlocked/unlocked_gallery.html

[linguistlist-blog]

Calls: 78th Kentucky Foreign Language Conference

Call for Papers: The KFLC 2025 Executive Committee is proud to open sessions devoted to the presentation of scholarly research in the following areas: - Arabic and Islamic Studies - Eurovision Studies - French and Francophone Studies - German-Austrian-Swiss - Hebrew and Jewish Studies - Hispanic Linguistics - Hispanic Linguistics: History and Change - Indigenous Studies - Intercultural Studies - Italian Studies - Language Studies for the Professions - Linguistics - Lusophone Studi http://dlvr.it/TBHWJ9

[yuneu]

obviously since im only studying spanish im not gonna study brazil but im gonna be in the same department and building as the lusophone students and share a library with them so it’s gonna be fun

[litcrittheory]

I am tempted to teach this essay by Nicholas R. Jones without the essay to which it responds, because it is a rich enough text to stand on its own. Work by scholars working on Spanish and Portuguese-speaking* world has often been a way for me to refresh my perspective of my own field.

* normally, I would put Lusophone but I have run into scholars deliberately avoiding it so until I know more, I am using Portuguese.

Text for Jones, Nicholas R. “Debt Collecting, Disappearance, Necromancy: A Response to John Beusterien.” Early Modern Black Diaspora Studies: A Critical Anthology. Palgrave Macmillan (2018) 216.

“ Africa to me—as I invoke Alexander Dumas’s romantic yet contested maxim ‘Africa begins at the Pyrenees’—begins in Iberia. The top-down rejection of Africa is an old phenomenon. Barbara Fuch’s *Exotic Nation[: Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern Spain* (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009)] immediately comes to mind, which problematizes the passage and critiques how Spain has been viewed by the rest of Western Europe as ‘African,’ or somehow befriend and oriented at mixed as a ‘Muslim’ Spain. The Africa that begins at the Pure red is also a sub-Saharan Africa that white Christian cultural elites have a keen interest in exorcising, along with all the typical Muslim baggage they want to discard. And nowadays, that old move is reinfused with a new vigor because the Africa that starts in the Pyrenees now is really about an Iberia that is actually diverse, not homogenous, and is very much sub-Saharan thanks to recent displacements of huge amounts of people. My point here is that this new move to reject Iberia’s internal *black* Africanness reconnects with older moves to reject the sub-Saharan African world. The powers that be have ‘de -Africanized Spain,’ to engage [Antumi] Toasijé’s [in “The Africanity of Spain: Identity and Problematization,” *Journal of Black Studies* 39.3 (January 2009): 348-355, 348-349] framework, not merely to ‘Europeanize’ itself—a concept Toasijé presents, but does not develop fully— due to, in part, and existential crisis. To be clear, I suggest we must problematize the arguemebt of Spain’s ‘de-Africanization’ of its past, present, and future lives *not* to collide with the country’s apparent depersonalization of its black migrants and immigrants who suffer from the racist myths the Spanish government has catapulted against its black populations. Spain’s empire is biting (it) back. What I find interesting about Spain’s ‘de-Africanization’ has much to do with the nation grappling with the memory of its colonial and (en)slaving past that now, in our present times, has to recognize the return—the voracious biting back—of a visible sub-Saharan African presence.”

[rainydawgradioblog]

Songs in Spanish Class

Dawg with a Blawg: Ed. 4

I’ve studied the Spanish language and history of hispanohablantes starting in Kindergarten, culminating in my senior Capstone in Spanish. Now that I’m an undergrad, my Global & Regional Studies degree is concentrated in the Americas. Much of my curriculum falls under Latin American and Caribbean studies, but I’ve also been lucky enough to be introduced to Lusophone and indigenous/First Nations history without a Eurocentric syllabus. 

As a Native Spanish Speaker™, I’ve always enjoyed learning about cultural artifacts more than daily ortografía/gramática exercises (I still can’t conjugate vosotros). In Spanish classes, other than the legendary parties with someone’s abuelita’s enchiladas, Dixie cups of Squirt, and family sizes of Takis, I had the most fun when a teacher would hand out copies of the lyrics to a song in Spanish for us to learn. 

From Los pollitos dicen to Cielito lindo, here are some of my favorite songs of American diaspora assignments throughout my career.

Song - artist/feat. artist: (alt. version) rough description

Fotografía - Juanes/Nelly Furtado: pop/rock alternativo

A Dios le pido - Juanes: ‘00s rock colombiana

Um índio - Caetano Veloso: brasileira 1977

Irene - Rodrigo Amarante: (sampled in Saudade - Dillaz) brasileira

Imagina - Antonio Carlos Jobim: (Rita Payés/Elisabeth Roma) bossa nova

Futuros Amantes - Chico Buarque: bossa nova

Fiesta en la Sierra - Los Tucanes de Tijuana: narcocorrido sinaloense

El gran varón - Willie Colón: diáspora caribeño de salsa puertorriqueña

La bamba rebelde - Las cafeteras: Son Jarocho/zapateado chicana

Latinoamérica - Calle 13: Totó la Momposina, Susana Baca, María Rita: aristas de PR, CO, MX, PE, BR

La bicicleta - Shakira/Carlos Vivés: vallenato con reggaetón

Xoxo, Millie

Musical notes from a budding musician

[silasfiorotti]

“Recent publications on Lusophone Africa” (by Kathleen Sheldon, H-Luso-Africa, on Tuesday, January 8, 2019).

[needcake]

Rare Pair Week, day 3: Culture

@aphrarepairweek2021

South Africa/Mozambique, PG, 500 words.

.

“You cut your hair,” is the first thing she tells him when he comes closer to her in the airport arrivals lounge, and South Africa blinks at this small woman with her heart-shaped face and full lips crisped in distaste.

“Hello to you too, Moz.”

The ride to her house is quiet, and he knows better than to test her when she closes herself off like this. He looks at the road instead. At the tall tree tops and the azure beaches beyond.

“I had that dream again,” she says, eyes still turned straight ahead and he studies her profile, her high cheekbones, her big golden earrings and the perfect folds of her colorful capulana wrapped around her head.

“Did you sleepwalk again?” She nods. “Moz… that can be dangerous.”

“I know that,” she cuts him off sharply and South Africa presses his lips closed. Mozambique exhales with a slight shudder, her narrow shoulders dropping, her guard lowering. “I know that,” she repeats, softer this time.

He notices the bags under her eyes, dark circles on her usually clear, healthy skin. “What was it this time?” She glanced at him with furrowed brows, and he complemented, “The dream, what was it this time?”

“Why did you cut your hair?” she asks instead, shooting him another glare.

He sighs, passing a hand over his buzz cut hair, barely an inch of it left after he tried cutting it by himself at home. “Hair grows back.”

She huffs, turning a corner and pulling her car up into her street.

Her living room is painted an elegant shade of light grey and her curtains are white. She still keeps her old rifle hung on the wall behind her couch, neatly cleaned and oiled, the black barrel a sharp contrast in color to the soft tones of her home.

“What did you dream about, Moz?” he tries again, standing in the midst of her home and things and watches as she turns her car keys around her fingers like lines in a fishing net.

Mozambique turns her big brown eyes to him, her kind heart-shaped face tight with sorrow. “Same as always.”

“The dog again?”

She nods, looking down. He sighs. The clock on the far wall tells him there is still time before her sister gets there for the dinner party Mozambique had been planning for weeks, and since being late runs in their family there was even more time still. He puts his bags down on the floor and pulls her hands to him.

“Let’s go to the beach,” he says and she cocks her head to the side, looking at him with the beginnings of a smile.

“Only if you promise to never get rid of your hair like that again.”

He rolls his eyes. “It needed a trim.”

“Then you should have come to me and I’d do it.”

When he pulls her hands the rest of her body follows and her small frame fits perfectly in his arms.

“Deal.”

---

Notes:

There are two literary references here because I love Mozambican literature too much, and they are: Sleepwalking Land, by Mia Couto (1992), and my personal favorite, We killed the mangy dog, by Luís Bernardo Honwara (1964). Both have already been translated into English.

Mozambican women are known for their skincare, the traditional mussiro masks have both a symbolic traditional use and a cosmetic one. They used to be worn by young women to symbolize their virginity, but that practice has gone into disuse and nowadays it’s worn by any woman. I’m going to leave this article here for a more detailed description.

The capulanas are colorful fabrics imported from India worn by Mozambican women. They used to be brought in by Arabic traders since the 9th century and are worn in a variety of ways.

The rifle is, of course, a reference both to the Mozambican Independence War and to the Mozambican flag.

Being late is part of the lusophone world. :|

[creolesasuke]

I definitely think my fav community of people that I've ever talked too has been lusophones/Brazilians. Like I was planning on putting off portuguese for a bit but they all are so nice and open and encouraging that they convinced to keep actively studying it.

[lukeskywaker4ever]

Independence Palace in Lisbon

Independence Palace, also called the Restoration Palace, is located in the historic center of Lisbon, in Largo de São Domingos, at the entrance to Portas de Santo Antão. The Palace got its name because it was here that D. Antão de Almada and the 40 conspirators had the last meeting that gave rise to the Restoration of Portuguese Independence on December 1, 1640, with the overthrow of Philippine power and the acclaim to King of D. João IV. It was home to the Counts of Almada until 1824. It was in this house that Almeida Garrett resided in 1833. Today the Museu da Identidade Lusíada is installed, as well as the headquarters of the Portuguese Military History Commission of the Ministry of National Defense, plus the center of Portuguese-Brazilian Philosophy, the Pedro Hispano Culture Center, the Guide for Portuguese Studies, the Movement Lusophone International, Nova Portugalidade and a delegation from the Senior University of Amadora.

[evilsufjanstevens]

Likisani OCs (there’s 3)

Simão Araújo Luzeiro -> Simão is 19 and is an archival studies student at the University Of Temman (UdT), he is in his first year of study. He is from a lusophone background and grew up in the city of Jacuê/Jasuê/Yasué in the LAZ. He is a catholic but isn’t very observant. He does, however, venerate Saint Thomas Becket and Saint TYaiko. His personality is sarcastic, quiet and quite nervous. He likes art, archiving and history. He is best friends with TZnyûs but often gets into fights with João

TZnyûs Ækæræyæ -> she is also 19 and studies Catalan and Bæu at UdT. She is also in her first year. TZnyûs is a Temmani Bæu meaning that her family live in the Bæu speaking part of Temman (GYârikoulyo/GYerityûl) and that’s where she grew up. Because of this she speaks Likisani with a heavy accent and prefers to speak in Bæu or Catalan. She is devoutly religious and is a Hanaggoist. This means she follows a strict, mystical form of bonnism. Her faith means she’s covers her hair. Personality-wise TZnyûs is funny, lighthearted and a little naïve. She likes poetry, exploring Temman and making textile art. She is a heavy drinker.

João ‘Kijô’ Kaparanggda -> João, or Kijô as his mates call him, is 19. He studies business. He is a bit of a braggart and loudmouth but at heart he is a good person. He is Likisani through-and-through having grown up in the LE town Perdikan Rézyiwairé. His parents are both rich. He is not religious and mostly just likes to relax. His personality is boisterous and loud, however he is also very caring and loyal to his friends. He loves to cook as well.

SEND ASKS ABOUT THEM

[linguistlist-blog]

Books: Domestic Workers Talk: Gonçalves and Schluter (2024)

Set in a multilingual cleaning company that serves Anglophone customers in the upper-(middle) class suburbs of New York City, this book presents an ethnographic study into power, language policy and communication from the perspectives of the Brazilian–American employer as well as the company’s Hispanophone and Lusophone employees. Power asymmetries in internal communication demonstrate the employer’s legitimated domination over her employees and her L1 Portuguese as a form of linguistic capital. http://dlvr.it/T3fZYy

[autspoon]

i kind of wish i had personally more use of portuguese... because i know quite a lot of portuguese... both lexically and grammatically.

problem is i don’t have personal use for it really.. as i don’t really plan to go anywhere lusophonic and also dont rly know anyone from those places either...

i kind of feel it’s not realistic to be studying a language without getting proper exposure.. i mean i already find it rly hard to find non-english/us media.

[seeselfblack]

Lest we not forget the assassination of (someone you should know) brotha Amilcar Cabral... 

The Revolutionary Legacy of Amilcar Cabral

Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral, one of the greatest anti-colonial leaders of the twentieth century, was born on the 12th of September 1924 in Bafatá, a small town in central Guinea-Bissau. Today, ninety years later, let us take a moment to remember this brilliant revolutionary – the undisputed leader and architect of the struggle to liberate Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde from the yoke of Portuguese colonialism.

As a revolutionary theorist, as a guerrilla fighter, as an inspiring agitator, as an uncompromising internationalist, Cabral’s legacy continues to inform the global struggle against imperialism and for socialism.

From a base of almost nothing, he was able to lead the construction of the most successful guerrilla movement in Africa and a strong, disciplined political party: the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC). Fidel Castro referred to him as “one of the most lucid and brilliant leaders in Africa, who instilled in us tremendous confidence in the future and the success of his struggle for liberation.” 

Cabral built close links with the liberated African countries (in particular Guinea, Ghana, Tanzania, Algeria and Libya) as well as the liberation movements fighting colonialism in Mozambique, South Africa and Angola. Furthermore, he located the PAIGC’s struggle against colonialism within the global struggle against imperialism and for socialism, and on this basis forged close ties with the entire socialist camp, including the Soviet Union, China, the German Democratic Republic, Cuba and Vietnam. (The PAIGC was one of the few movements in the 60s and 70s to successfully navigate the Sino-Soviet split and maintain close relations with both the Soviet Union and China).

Cabral was surely a man of action, but he was also an important and innovative political thinker who made an outstanding contribution to anti-imperialist, socialist, pan-Africanist and revolutionary nationalist ideologies. Tetteh Kofi writes that Cabral “charted a new ideological path, extending the works of Marx and Lenin to suit African realities. Cabral was the leading political theorist of the Lusophone leaders, until his assassination in 1973” (cited in Reiland Rabaka ‘Concepts of Cabralism: Amilcar Cabral and Africana Critical Theory’).

Portugal’s racist policy – along with its own backwardness – meant that very few people in its colonies had access to higher education. In Guinea Bissau at the time, there was only a handful of university graduates in the whole country. However, Cabral displayed exceptional academic ability, and this enabled him to study at the University of Lisbon, where he met people like Agostinho Neto and Eduardo Mondlane (who would go on to lead the revolutionary movements in Angola and Mozambique respectively). In Portugal, his fellow African students introduced him to socialist ideology, and they spent much of their time studying, discussing and strategising: how to end colonial domination of their homelands? How to inspire the broad masses of the people to engage in struggle?

Cabral returned to Guinea Bissau in 1951 and worked for some years as an agronomist – which experience “provided him with ample opportunity to learn at first hand of the dire poverty and intense suffering of his people, especially in the countryside. His experiences made him more determined than ever to find ways and means of working for the freedom of his country and delivering his people from the yoke of colonial bondage...”

continue reading at Invent the Future 

[everythingbutstudying]

Hey! I'm a high schooler and I've wanted to major International Relations for many years. But the college that I have decided on doesn't have IR =/ (I'm going there bc it is the best school I was accepted to + its free) I think I'll end up majoring in Political Science. Do you have any advice for like self-studying IR?

Hi!First off all, sorry If I took too long to answer. I have a problem with tumblr notifications. And also my english is a mess so sorry if it's a bit cringy I'm writing on my phone and I don't have corrector.

The curriculum of each course depends on each college and countries so I'm taking the perspective of mine to answer this. My major was IR and minor was European and Lusophone Studies but I also had my share of classes about other countries like China or USA and their politic and diplomatic systems because of comparative cases.My teachers always told us that IR is nothing more and a branch of P.Science. If you major in PS most of the basics (government types, voting systems, general theories, stuff about different constitutions etc). IR is like a mix between PS , History and Social & Economic History. The theories in PS are not that different from the ones in IR  because of that (International Politic is nothing more than the relation between two identities that do not belong in the same country) , the difference for me is that when you try to justify an event using PS you do it relating it to how something works inside a country/organization (very bad generic eg, Trump winning elections was a result of a increase of right-wing voters) but when you do it with IR it implies an use of external factors too ( still the same bad generic eg:  Trump winning elections was a result of a increase of right wing voters because they think there should be better regulation about imigration from south America).  They sound the same right? Because you can't really separate them. Regulate imigration implies not only diplomatic negotiation with someone but also internal intervention (does that made sense?)Half of my classemates actually went to a post-grad in PS instead of IR after the bachelor.

Now, answering the real question:If you are really interesting in the (boring) diplomatic and protocolar stuff about IR (you know, who sits on the right side of the president or which flag should be put first) , the better way to study that is to read. IR is all about reading. In Portugal our International Affairs Ministery has a official website where it posts recent news, legislation and pdfs with all the protocol. I'm guessing most countries do that too or have some author who does investigation on that (there is always someone investigating on specific topics bless them) probably a quick google scholar search will give you lots of material. If you want more generic stuff -like theories or theories about diplomatic conflit resolution- there are also lots of 'IR Manuals' around the internet from universities all around the world.You can't really study everything about IR because humans are a mess and are always in conflit soo you will find a niche of some topic you really love (for me it was labor workers movements in a specific region of Portugal and its relation to international affairs) and after that the best thing I can recommend is to read academic papers about that topic ou online publications from Social Sciences. News are also important and being updated about the world even if they are manipulated sometimes. As a IR critic/student/passionate is not your objetive or place to say if "Country A started a war against B and won"  (that is for History) but to analize "What were the -social, economic, politic- factors that led to a war between A & B" or "How international law deals with this conflit"  or even "Is there any international pressure to stop this war?"

I hope this is not confusing, Im sorry ahah