Framework

[There was a first session of this course on May 12, 2018 | Information HERE]

To create a form of language is to create a form of reality, as Wittgenstein suggests. But because language speaks to us, as Freud and Foucault have also demonstrated, it still constrains us to the abyssal thinking that Boaventura de Sousa Santos refers in his reflection on modernity, perhaps the creative writing can become, not a discipline, but a necessary political instrument to reveal powerful (mainly because invisible) mechanisms of subalternization and creative erasure.

Creative writing must activate the creative potential of each citizen (Bernestein) so that their invisible and erased vision of reality can finally speak for itself: as an agonist space and as an alternative space. Starting from a non-communicative model of language (Lecercle), the creative writing sessions depart from these theoretical assumptions to, through exercises applied for over more than 20 years of research and teaching practice, open a space of freer linguistic experimentation in which other visions of the reality of the emigration experience become possible. The group discussion by the authors of the texts produced and the complementary analysis of the responsible teacher will bring a different contribution and lines of observation that may function as a support or alternative to another type of analysis.

Registration is free, but mandatory, limited to 20 participants. It is intended that, preferably, the trainees be descendants of Portuguese emigrants.

Activity under the project Na Ponta da Língua: Histórias, Memórias e Inovação na Emigração

Bio note 

Graça Capinha is Associate Professor in the Departament of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Section of Anglo-American Studies, at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC). She's also a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies-Associate Laboratory (CES). With a PhD in American Literature by the University of Coimbra, she was the Director of the Institute for American Studies (2006-2008), a member of the Coordination Board of the Scientific Committee of FLUC (2004-2008) and of the Scientific Committee of DLLC-FLUC. She was also a member of the Executive Committee of CES (2003-2005 & 1993-1995). Presently, she is the Executive Director of the inter- and transdisciplinary 3 rd. Cycle (PhD.) Program on "Languages and Heterodoxies: History, Poetics, and Social Practices" (FLUC/CES). Along the years, she taught diverse undergraduate as well as graduate courses on English and American literature, contemporary poetry and poetics, and creative writing (a field that she introduced in the Portuguese university in 1996). She was the head researcher of the collective research project on "New Poetics of Resistance: the 21st Century in Portugal" (FCT/CES), concluded in 2011, and she had the same responsability in the collective research project on "Emigration and Identity" (JNICT/CES-1997). She was also a member of research teams of several other research projects on poetry/poetics and emigration, both in and out of Portugal. From 1991 to 1999, she took part in the Poetics Program of the State University of New York (SUNY at Buffalo, USA), where she had a chance to meet and work with some of the major authors of the L=A=N=G=U=A=GE School. From 2001 to 2002, she participated in the project "Children's Introduction to the Arts" and also taught on poetics in several intensive music courses at the experimental Centre for the Study of Arts of Belgais, directed by Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. A co-organizer of FLUC's "International Meetings of Poets" (1992-5-8-2001-4-7-10), she was also the main responsible for the creation of FLUC's Program "Poets in Residence", a program that she coordinates since 2007. She is the Editor of the poetry magazine "Oficina de Poesia. Revista da Palavra e da Imagem" ("Poetry Workshop. A magazine of words and images") (FLUC, Reitoria da UC e CES, 1997-), and a member of the editorial board of the Brasilian poetry magazine "Sibila" (São Paulo, Brasil). She also co-edits the series "Literature and Arts" of the Collection CES/Almedina. Her interests and publications focus on contemporary poetics (mainly Portuguese and American), and their relation to social and political issues, such as que questions of identity and emigration. She has published extensively on these issues and, besides Portugal, some of her work can also be found in Spain, Germany, Brasil and the United States..