Interdisciplinary Guest Talk Series: Rostos de Macau / Facets of Macau
1st Talk
Title of talk:
Coming of Age in Twentieth-Century Macau: “Love and Toes”, by Henrique de Senna Fernandes as a Double Bildungsroman
Speaker: Rogério Miguel Puga, PhD
Date: 29 Oct 2020
Time: 19 – 20 (Macau/Hong Kong local time)
Venue: Zoom link – https://umac.zoom.us/j/91494589953
Description:
In this talk, Prof. Puga analyses the novel “Love and Toes”, by the Macanese author Henrique de Senna Fernandes, as a double (male and female) Bildungsroman, and how both characters develop throughout the text’s action in the historical context of twentieth-century Macau.
Professor Rogério Miguel Puga holds a Ph.D. in Anglo-Portuguese Studies and is an Associate Professor at the Universidade Nova (Lisbon), and Coordinator of the Seminar on Macau Studies. His research interests are History of Macau, British Empire, travel writings, Anglo-Portuguese studies, and Contemporary English Literature.
The talk opens the Interdisciplinary Guest Talk series for the 2020-2021 academic year, organized by the Research Centre for Luso-Asian Studies (CIELA), Portuguese Department of Portuguese. For this semester, the series includes two other guest talks. All talks will include the possibility of a Q&A session.
2nd Talk
Title of talk:
Macau and Brazil: Cultural Contacts
Speaker: Leonor Diaz de Seabra, PhD
Date: 11/11/2020
Time: 19 – 20 (Macau/Hong Kong local time)
Venue: Zoom link – https://umac.zoom.us/j/91494589953
Description:
To understand the relationships between Macau and Brazil it is necessary to consider the historical and geographical context of the relationship between Europe/America/Asia. The Portuguese city of Macau was the only port in China permanently authorized to receive foreign embarkations.
In spite of the prohibitions, clandestine trips, since early times, allowed the direct contact from Macau to America, through the Philippines, evading the regulations.
The messages and goods carried via the route of the Cape of Hope, from Macau to Brazil, whether smuggling or legally, became gradually more frequent.
From 1810 tea growing in Rio de Janeiro began with plants imported from Macau and about 200 Chinese working on tea plantations.
Traces of this cultural interchange still exist, especially in architecture, sculptures, porcelains, and in paintings.
Professor Leonor Diaz de Seabra obtained a Masters in Luso-Asian Studies from the University of Macau and holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Porto. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Macau where she has worked as a teaching staff and researcher since 1996. Prof. Seabra was the 1st Director of CIELA. Her field of research lies in the History of Macau, History of Southeast Asia, Gender Studies, Culture and Mentalities, and Population Studies and has published extensively through academic articles, book chapters, and books on these topics.
3rd Talk
Title of talk:
A Quinta Essência [The Fifth Essence], by Agustina Bessa-Luis: the imaginary of Macau’s past put into circulation.
Speaker: Mônica Simas, PhD
Date: 26/11/2020
Time: 19 – 20 (Macau/Hong Kong local time)
Venue: Zoom link – https://umac.zoom.us/j/91494589953
Description:
This speech seeks to show that, in the unfinished story of A Quinta Essência [The Fifth Essence], written by Agustina Bessa-Luis, contradictory and mysterious memories of Macau are put into circulation along the path of a protagonist, who in conflict with himself, reflects on the impossibility of knowing the world. The self-reflective narrative, full of anachronisms and fusion of diegetic levels, presents China as a desired “other”, permeated with crossed imagery. The main purpose of this communication is to verify how the intersections of these imaginary points to the possible meanings of Luso-Chinese contacts at the same time that erase the organization of Portugal’s old colonial records. The relations between fiction and history, typical of historiographical metafiction could multiply the meanings of understanding about Macau.
Keywords: Contemporary Portuguese Fiction; Macau in the Portuguese Language Literature; Postmodern Portuguese Literature; Colonial Archives and Fiction; Macau’s literature.
Professor Simas is a Portuguese Literature Professor at the University of Sao Paulo (USP-SP), Brazil. She had her Master’s and Doctorate’s degree in Portuguese Literature from PUC-Rio. There, she has taught in graduation and post-graduation programs until 2003. At the University of Sao Paulo, she actually coordinates the LIA (Laboratory of Intersections with Asia) with Professor Ho Yeh Chia from the Department of Orient Studies. She has published extensively on Macau Portuguese Literature and related topics. Beyond that, she also has some publications about contemporary Portuguese poetry.
Audience: All are welcome
Language: Portuguese
Enquiry:
Department of Portuguese. Email: fah.portuguese@um.edu.mo
Research Centre for Luso-Asian Studies. Email: ciela@um.edu.mo
Media Coverage:
1st Talk:
Coming of Age in Twentieth-Century Macau: “Love and Toes”, by Henrique de Senna Fernandes as a Double Bildungsroman