GESPEDU
Although the Portuguese language is one of the ten most spoken languages in the world, its teaching in Portugal relies mainly on national writers, and grants little room to female authorship. Based on the premise that the short story is the literary genre that best enables the dissemination of diversified cultural references and the corresponding plurality of perspectives, this project explores the potential of the genre to foster more inclusive school syllabi, contributing to gender equality by increasing the visibility of female authorship, and naturalizing cultural difference through the compulsory study of authors from other nations that also speak Portuguese, namely, Brazil and several African countries. Furthermore, the practices and knowledge generated by this project can subsequently be adapted and replicated in other national contexts, or in relation to other transnational languages.
Our research is primarily focused on the short story in Portuguese, from countries such as East Timor, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, the archipelagoes of Cape Verde and S. Tomé e Príncipe, Portugal and Brazil. While its primary focus is the Portuguese speaking world, it remains open to comparative perspectives involving other literary traditions, thereby fostering an international dialogue on the contemporary short story.
The project has got three general aims:
1. To implement research on the contemporary short story from a comparative and transnational perspective. To identify the latest developments in the short story genre after the modernist period, which played such a pivotal role in establishing the short story as a major genre within Western literature. Third, to move beyond the limits of a Eurocentric critical tradition by engaging with and integrating literary canons from other continents and cultures, thereby reinforcing the value of this approach as a foundation for contemporary decolonial thought.
2. In terms of knowledge transfer from academy to society, this project will develop a proposal for curricular reform, in Portugal, for the teaching of Portuguese, at (upper secondary) high-school level. Its objective is to advocate for the inclusion of short stories by Brazilian authors, and authors from Portuguese speaking African countries, thereby fostering greater awareness of the literatures of the Portuguese speaking world, while responding to the changing profile of students attending Portuguese schools. At the same time, the proposal will include measures to promote a more balanced representation of women and men among the authors studied, with the aim of raising awareness among younger generations of women's contributions to their respective national cultures.
3. To translate, a selection of short stories to English and French, thereby showcasing the richness and diversity of Portuguese-language literatures to Francophone and Anglophone audiences.