I. ASCRC General Education Form (revised 9/15/09)
Use to propose new general education courses (except writing courses), to change existing
gen ed courses and to remove designations for existing gen ed courses.
Note: One-time-only general education designation may be requested for experimental courses
(X91-previously X95), granted only for the semester taught. A NEW request must be
submitted for the course to receive subsequent general education status.
Group
III. Language
VII: Social Sciences
(submit
III Exception: Symbolic Systems * VIII: Ethics & Human Values
separate forms
IV: Expressive Arts
IX: American & European
if requesting
X: Indigenous & Global
more than one X V: Literary & Artistic Studies
VI: Historical & Cultural Studies
XI: Natural Sciences
general
w/ lab  w/out lab 
education
group
*Courses proposed for this designation must be standing requirements of
designation)
majors that qualify for exceptions to the modern and classical language
requirement
Dept/Program MCLL
Course #
191
Course Title
Prerequisite
Human Rights Issues in Literature and Film of the PortugueseSpeaking World
None
Credits
3
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office
Please type / print name Signature
Date
Clary Loisel
9-24-14
X2150;
clary.loisel@umontana.edu
Program Chair Elizabeth Ametsbichler
Dean
Christopher Comer
III. Type of request
New
X
One-time Only
X
Change
Remove
Reason for Gen Ed inclusion, change or deletion
Part of Freshman Seminar (GLI)
Description of change
IV. Description and purpose of new general education course: General Education courses
must be introductory and foundational within the offering department or within the General
Education Group. They must emphasize breadth, context, and connectedness; and relate course
content to students’ future lives: See Preamble:
http://umt.edu/facultysenate/archives/minutes/gened/GE_preamble.aspx
Instructor
Phone / Email
This course is multidisciplinary in nature, integrating literature, film, and history. We will
study the appropriate Lusophone history to provide the historical, social, and cultural
background for the literature and film analysis. Students will be asked to compare and contrast
historical, literary, and cinematographic accounts of important Lusophone cultural events.
The literature and films are varied, but they have much in common. All respond to an
understanding that collective history is an experience that affects citizens dominated by
authoritarianism and fear. They share an ethical and artistic vision born of the peculiarities of
political violence and social injustice. The understanding that the personal is political and
historical is one of the principal components of this course’s subject matter. The authors and
film directors whom we study participate in a long tradition that articulates the possibility of
representing the social and political landscape of the everyday and the collective experience of
a people, with all of its symbolic and social meaning. These writers and directors present a new
way of telling. Thus, we observe how the language they use bears direct witness to a period of
repression and is capable of defying censure. They are united in the most important cultural
traditions of the twentieth and twenty-first century and articulate life and literature/film as
integral elements of the human conscience.
Writing and movie making is a body of human expression, in which the daily
conventions of our lives join with the ambiguities and subtleties of literature and film. But we
must add in the bodies of the disappeared without identity, without memory—and this becomes
the existential body of the literature and film that is not quieted by the dominant ideology or its
power to deny what is happening. For example, it is impossible to look at the streets of
Maputo, Mozambique during the 1970’s and not see the mutilated bodies strewn throughout.
The history, literature, and film of this course gather the victimized bodies and arm them with
words and images: it restores them and offers them dignity.
It is my hope that the students will become better “global citizens.” Global citizenship can
be defined as a moral and ethical disposition which can guide the understanding of individuals
or groups in both local and global contexts and remind them of their relative responsibilities
within various communities. Global citizenship can be motivated by global interests (a sense of
universal equality), and concern for fellow human beings, human rights, and human dignity.
The key tenets of global citizenship include respect for any and all fellow global citizens,
regardless of race, religion, creed, or sexual orientation and give rise to a universal empathy
beyond the barriers of nationality.
Literature and film are expressions of the human condition. They make possible
transnational and transformational writing and directing that seeks to integrate silenced
voices—denied and tortured voices—and bring them out into the open. Perhaps the most
important outcomes of this course will promote understanding of human possibilities and offer
faith and hope.
V. Criteria: Briefly explain how this course meets the criteria for the group. See:
http://umt.edu/facultysenate/documents/forms/GE_Criteria5-1-08.aspx
Courses cover a number of works in one or
more of the various forms of artistic
representation; they also establish a framework
and context for analysis of the structure and
significance of these works. In addition, these
courses provide mechanisms for students 1) to
receive instruction on the methods of analysis
and criticism, 2) to develop arguments about the
works from differing critical perspectives.
Students will examine how particular literary
works and films attempt to define the themes
of inequality, injustice, and justice present in
the intercultural relationship between
societies and cultures across the Portuguesespeaking (Lusophone) world. The countries
and continents to be included are Portugal
(Europe), Brazil (South America), Angola,
Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and
Príncipe (Africa), and East Timor (Asia).
Students will gain an understanding of how
different Lusophone countries have
approached, and influenced each other. In so
doing, they will come to understand how the
links between Lusophone countries affect the
social, political and cultural aspects of the
countries in question.
The course is multidisciplinary in
nature, integrating literature, film, and
history. We will then study the appropriate
Lusophone history to provide the historical,
social, and cultural background for the
literature and film analysis. Students will be
asked to compare and contrast historical,
literary, and cinematographic accounts of
important Lusophone cultural events.
This course presents an important
group of literary and cinematographic voices
specific to Lusophone culture.
Representative authors include José
Saramago from Portugal, Clarice Lispector,
Jorge Amado, and Graciliano Ramos from
Brazil, Baltasar Lopes and Germano de
Almeida from Cape Verde, Flora Gomes
from Guinea-Bissau, Franciso José Tenreiro
from St. Thomas and Principe, Luandino
Vieira from Angola, and Mia Couto and
Paulina Chiziane from Mozambique.
Besides formal presentations and
worksheets, I intend to invite guest lecturers
like Professor Megan Stark form the
Mansfield Library and Kelly Webster from
the Writing Center to help provide specific
guidelines about how to analyze the material
for the course and how to write better.
VI. Student Learning Goals: Briefly explain how this course will meet the applicable learning
goals. See: http://umt.edu/facultysenate/documents/forms/GE_Criteria5-1-08.aspx
Analyze works of art with respect to structure
The students will develop the ability to
and significance within literary and artistic
place the aforementioned texts and movies
traditions, including emergent movement and
in the trajectory of the Western tradition
forms.
with a comprehension of the work’s themes,
narrative (or cinematographic) technique,
characterization, setting, motifs, symbols,
and treatment of time.
Develop coherent arguments that critique these
works from a variety of approaches, such as
historical, aesthetic, cultural, psychological,
political, and philosophical.
Students will develop an understanding of
the Lusophone world. They will be expected
to present academic assessments or critiques
of literary works and/or films in both oral
and written form.
Students will be asked to use three principal
approaches to critique important Lusophone
events: historical, literary, and
cinematographic.
Goals:
1. Evaluate multiple perspectives about
lives and identities by integrating
history, literature, and film.
2. 2. Demonstrate critical thinking
skills by writing and speaking
articulately about the Lusophone
world as they relate to human rights
issues.
3. Provide students with broad
exposure to major trends,
movements, and authors of modern
Lusophone literature and film.
4. To enhance the student’s ability
to build an argument based on
evidence gathered through the
close-reading of a literary text or
the viewing of a movie.
5. To develop further the student’s
ability to formulate a thesis and
develop it in an essay about
literary works and/or films
within Lusophone culture.
6. To provide the student with an
understanding of the current
cultural, social, political, and
ethical human rights issues in
Lusophone countries.
VII. Justification: Normally, general education courses will not carry pre-requisites, will carry
at least 3 credits, and will be numbered at the 100-200 level. If the course has more than one
pre-requisite, carries fewer than three credits, or is upper division (numbered above the 200
level), provide rationale for exception(s).
N/A
VIII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form.  The syllabus
should clearly describe how the above criteria are satisfied. For assistance on syllabus
preparation see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html
Human Rights Issues in Literature and Film of the PortugueseSpeaking World
Course Description: Students will examine how particular literary works and films attempt to
define the themes of inequality, injustice, and justice present in the intercultural relationship
between societies and cultures across the Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) world. The
countries and continents to be included are Portugal (Europe), Brazil (South America), Angola,
Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe (Africa), and East Timor (Asia). Students
will gain an understanding of how different Lusophone countries have approached, and
influenced each other. In so doing, they will come to understand how the links between
Lusophone countries affect the social, political and cultural aspects of the countries in question.
The course is multidisciplinary in nature, integrating literature, film, and history. Early
in the class, we will analyze and discuss the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” adopted
by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. We will then study the appropriate
Lusophone history to provide the historical, social, and cultural background for the literature
and film analysis. Students will be asked to compare and contrast historical, literary, and
cinematographic accounts of important Lusophone cultural events.
This course presents an important group of literary and cinematographic voices specific
to Lusophone culture. Representative authors include Fernando Pessoa and José Saramago
from Portugal, Clarice Lispector, Jorge Amado, and Graciliano Ramos from Brazil, Baltasar
Lopes and Germano de Almeida from Cape Verde, Flora Gomes from Guinea-Bissau, Franciso
José Tenreiro from St. Thomas and Principe, Luandino Vieira and Pepetela from Angola, and
Mia Couto and Paulina Chiziane from Mozambique. Representative films include City of God,
Central Station, Last Will and Testament of Senhor de Silva Aráujo, and Black Death among
many others.
The literature and films are varied, but they have much in common. All respond to an
understanding that collective history is an experience that affects citizens dominated by
authoritarianism and fear. They share an ethical and artistic vision born of the peculiarities of
political violence and social injustice. The understanding that the personal is political and
historical is one of the principal components of this course’s subject matter. The authors and
film directors whom we study participate in a long tradition that articulates the possibility of
representing the social and political landscape of the everyday and the collective experience of
a people, with all of its symbolic and social meaning. These writers and directors present a new
way of telling. Thus, we observe how the language they use bears direct witness to a period of
repression and is capable of defying censure. They are united in the most important cultural
traditions of the twentieth and twenty-first century and articulate life and literature/film as
integral elements of the human conscience.
Writing and movie making is a body of human expression, in which the daily
conventions of our lives join with the ambiguities and subtleties of literature and film. But we
must add in the bodies of the disappeared without identity, without memory—and this becomes
the existential body of the literature and film that is not quieted by the dominant ideology or its
power to deny what is happening. For example, it is impossible to look at the streets of
Maputo, Mozambique during the 1970’s and not see the mutilated bodies strewn throughout.
The history, literature, and film of this course gather the victimized bodies and arm them with
words and images: it restores them and offers them dignity.
Course Goals:
1) Provide students with broad exposure to major trends, movements, and authors of
modern Lusophone literature and film.
2) Achieve a general appreciation for the global nature of the literatures and films of the
Portuguese-speaking world.
3) To read about significant human rights concerns in Lusophone history and
analyze how certain works of literature and film represent these issues.
4) To confront the inability of ever knowing the Truth.
5) To enhance the student’s ability to build an argument based on evidence gathered
through the close-reading of a literary text or the viewing of a movie.
6) To develop further the student’s ability to formulate a thesis and develop it in an essay
about literary works and/or films within Lusophone culture.
7) To provide the student with an understanding of the current cultural, social, political,
and ethical human rights issues in Lusophone countries.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the semester students who have successfully completed the assignments
and participated fully in the class discussions can expect to be knowledgeable about important
human rights issues in contemporary Lusophone culture and will be able to integrate literary
works and film into this socio-historical context. They will also have a greater understanding
of how Lusophone literature and film question historical “truth.”
The title of this course, Human Rights Issues in Literature and Film of the PortugueseSpeaking World, denotes the strength of the voices contained herein—voices conscious that
writing and filming under the threats of dictatorship offers the possibility to humanize and
speak of the unspeakable. Modern psychiatry assures us that one of the most essential means of
rescuing a tortured body and allowing it to recover is through a language that speaks. Thus, the
student will learn how literature and film, with its sensible aesthetics and responsible
languages, becomes a form to represent what the human body has suffered.
Literature and film are an expression of the human condition. They make possible
transnational and transformational writing and directing that seeks to integrate silenced
voices—denied and tortured voices—and bring them out into the open. Perhaps the most
important outcomes of this course will promote understanding of human possibilities and offer
faith and hope.
Specifically, students should be able to:
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the way that societies across national boundaries deal
with human rights issues
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the ways that the lives of marginalized community
members (women, homosexuals, the poor, political dissidents, and people of color) are
shaped by social institutions
6. Evaluate multiple perspectives about lives and identities by integrating history,
literature, and film.
7. Write and speak articulately about human rights issues and demonstrate critical thinking
skills
8. Become a better “global citizen.” Global citizenship can be defined as a moral and
ethical disposition that can guide the understanding of individuals or groups in both
local and global contexts and remind them of their relative responsibilities within
various communities. Global citizenship can be motivated by global interests (a sense
of universal equality), and concern for fellow human beings, human rights, and human
dignity. The key tenets of global citizenship include respect for any and all fellow
global citizens, regardless of race, religion, creed, or sexual orientation and give rise to
a universal empathy beyond the barriers of nationality.
Assessment: The course is structured so that the student regularly receives feedback to achieve
the stated outcomes. Progress toward the stated outcomes is assessed using the following
criteria:
Attendance:
10%
Preparation/active participation:
10%
Reading quizzes:
15%
Five Film Reviews (each is worth 7%):
35%
Research Paper:
20%
Collaborative Creative project:
10%
Please note: Approved general education changes will take effect next fall.
General education instructors will be expected to provide sample assessment items and
corresponding responses to the Assessment Advisory Committee.