Curricular Unit:			Code:
Practices of Reading and Critical			1111ALCR
Year:	Level:	Course:	Credits:
1	Undergraduate	Communication Sciences	6 ects
Learning Period:		Language of Instruction:	Total Hours:
Spring Semester		Portuguese/English	78
Learning Outcomes of the Curricular Unit:
It is the purpose of this curricular unit to encourage the reading of non-technical works related to the scientific area of communication sciences, thus promoting and stimulating the tools for undertaking a critical analysis of the texts at stake, with a view to complementing the already existing abilities of textual interpretation and analysis, expanding them to the universe of literary texts where the different components of communication sciences are displayed, namely in the areas of social sciences and humanities.
Syllabus:
1.Reading as hermeneutical process 1.1. The distinctive characteristics of the literary text 1.2. The concept of literary genre 1.3. Literary criticism: different methods and approaches 2. The different areas of communication sciences as portrayed in literature 2.1. Critical reading and analysis of literary works with a focus on journalism 2.2. Critical reading and analysis of literary works with a focus on advertising and marketing 3. The art of storytelling 3.1. Storytelling in promotional discourses 3.2. Storytelling in journalism
Demonstration of the Syllabus Coherence with the Curricular Unit's Objectives:
For COM students, it is paramount to be able to understand and identify every text they come across, inasmuch that each of them presents different communicational purposes. Communication Sciences, in all their forms, are a fundamental part of our daily lives and also indissociable from our culture, permeating different literary texts. In this c.u., which aims to endow the students with the necessary conceptual tools to undertake a literary analysis of such texts, a more abstract form of reflection is promoted, deriving from the presence of media studies in literary culture and the forms these are portrayed in literary works. After an initial theoretical approach, students will be able to reflect on the proposed texts, thus reinforcing their writing skills by means of the elaboration of critical analyses on the diverse forms literary works mirror the performance and the consequences of our daily cohabitation with the practical manifestations of the media.
Teaching Methodologies (Including Evaluation):
Continuous assessment OR exam Classes are theoretical and practical, based on lectures and student participation in the different tasks proposed. Continuous assessment consists of one written test and an oral presentation in class based on a research project (50% for each element). Both assessment moments are compulsory. When the c.u. is not undertaken in continuous assessment, the student can take the final exam.
Demonstration of the Coherence between the Teaching Methodologies and the Learning Outcomes:
The methodologies adopted emphasize both the theoretical and the practical ways of learning. For the first part of the programme, classes will be focused on theoretical issues, which will provide the student with a deeper understanding of literature and the process of literary criticism. In order to achieve this purpose, excerpts of canonical theoretical works will be analysed in class. For the second part of the programme, students will be asked to use the analytical tools acquired by producing written analyses of the diverse literary texts proposed to them. In this manner, it will be possible to strengthen the perception of literary text as a fundamental cultural vehicle for the understanding and systematic reflection of communicational phenomena.
Reading:
Bakhtin, M.M. (1983) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. University of Texas. Barthes, R. (1977) Image-Music-Text. Hill and Wang Ed. Bloom, H. (1973) [1997] The Anxiety of Influence. Oxford University Press. Bloom, H. (1994) The Western Canon. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Bloom, H. (2001) How to Read and Why. Scribner. Fish, S. (1982) Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities. Harvard U.P. Frye, Northrop (1957) [2000] Anatomy of Criticism. Princeton U.P. Poe, E.A. [1986] The Raven: With The Philosophy of Composition. Northeastern University Press. Russell, D.A. & Winterbottom, M. (eds) (2008) Classical Literary Criticism. Oxford University Press. Smith-Laing, T. (2018) Michel Foucault’s What is an Author? Macat Library.