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Portuguese
at Yale an Historical Sketch
K.
David Jackson
Yale University
[email protected]
The
presence of Portuguese at Yale can be traced to the hiring of Henry Roseman
Lang, an Austrian with a doctorate in romance philology from Strasbourg
(1890), in the Department of Romance Languages. There is no evidence that
Professor Lang ever taught Portuguese, although he worked with Portuguese
medieval poetry and corresponded with Carolina Michaela de Vasconcellos,
Adolfo Coelho, and other famous Portuguese linguists and philologists
of the time. In 1908, he received Joaquim Nabuco, then the first Brazilian
ambassador to the United States, for two lectures at Yale on The
Place of Camões in Literature and The Spirit of Nationality
in Brazil. Professor Lang had a long and distinguished career at
Yale, from Instructor, 1892-93, Assistant Professor, 1893-96, Professor
of Romance Philology, 1896-1906, to Benjamin F. Barge Professor of Romance
Languages & Linguistics, 1906-1922. He was emeritus professor from
his retirement in 1922 until his death in 1934.
The Department of Romance Languages, in which Lang headed the Spanish
section, would continue to oversee teaching of the various romance languages
at Yale until 1973. There was only a minor in Spanish during Langs
time. In 1929 Romance Languages subdivided into a Department of French
and a Department of Spanish and Italian. Spanish and Italian would continue
as a unit until 1970. From 1971-73 Portuguese was added to become the
Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, directed by Emir Rodríguez
Monegal (Ph.D. Montevideo, 1956), a Uruguayan critic who arrived in 1969.
Beginning in 1973, Italian became a department of its own, and the current
Department of Spanish and Portuguese came into existence.
Teaching of Portuguese language at Yale began in the early days of WWII
in 1942-43. Yale cooperated with the government officials in Washington,
D.C. to institute a speed-up program of classes, meeting twelve
months of the year in three terms. Under this program Yale began or continued
the teaching of Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, German, French, and
Italian for the purpose of training military officers. The first classes
in Portuguese (PORT 10, elementary, 20, intermediate, and 30, advanced)
were taught by Professor Raymond Thompson Hill (B.A. 04; M.A. 05; Ph.D.
1911), who was instructor of French (1908-16), assistant professor (1916-27),
associate professor (1927-49) and then curator of the library collection.
He retired in 1952 and died in 1956.
In 1943-44 Hill was joined by C. Malcolm Batchelor (M.A. 1940, Ph.D. 1945),
who is almost singularly responsible for developing Portuguese over four
decades at Yale. Batchelor became Yales first professor of Portuguese.
He taught language and literature classes for 38 years, from 1943 through
the 1981-82 academic year. In 1947-49 Batchelor held the title of instructor
in Portuguese, becoming assistant professor in 1950 and associate in 1958.
He normally taught PORT 10 (elementary), co-taught PORT 12ab (intensive)
with Hill, and in 1946-47 offered a literature course for the first time,
PORT 43, The Novel in Brazil. In 1950-51 Batchelor introduced
PORT 49, The Short Story in Brazil. Batchelor continued to
teach these same courses through the 1950s. He invited the eminent Brazilian
writer Érico Veríssimo to Yale for a lecture on December
1, 1955. Batchelor attended the international Luso-Brazilian congress
in Salvador, Bahia in 1959 under a special travel grant arranged by courtesy
of Henri Peyre, then chair of Romance Languages. Batchelor served many
years as chair of the Department of Spanish and Italian, while sustaining
courses in Portuguese, at times with great difficulty.
In 1959-60, Batchelor began to use assistants, whether native informants
used for phonetic training under the audio-lingual method or graduate
students. He introduced another course, PORT 42, Masterpieces of
Portuguese and Brazilian Literature. From 1962-64 Russell G. Hamilton
(Ph.D., 1965), a graduate student, taught language and PORT 41, Short
Story. Batchelor continued to teach PORT 15, 41 and 42, and in 1966-67
José Santiago Naud (M.A., UFRGS, 1957) arrived from Brazil as his
assistant. In 1968 Almir Campos Bruneti (Lic., U. São Paulo, 1961)
came as visiting lecturer and remained through 1970-71. In addition to
PORT 15 and 42, Bruneti developed new courses in literature, PORT 90a,
Development of Major Motifs of Portuguese Literature, and
91a, Contemporary Luso-Brazilian Fiction in Translation. After
his departure, offerings were again reduced to PORT 15 and 42 until the
arrival of Maria Luisa Nunes (Ph.D., CUNY, 1972). During the 1960s, distinguished
Brazilian scholars lectured or studied at Yale, including Antonio Candido,
João Alexandre Barbosa, Roberto Schwarz, and Leyla Perrone-Moisés.
From 1973-78 Maria Luisa Nunes taught Brazilian literature as a section
of PORT 42 and began PORT 63b in Afro-American Studies on Brazil.
She also opened PORT 49a, Practice in Writing and Speaking
in 1974-75 and the first course in directed readings. Batchelor offered
the first graduate courses in Portuguese in 1975-76, Problems in
Brazilian Modernism and The Poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade.
In 1976-77 Nunes became the first Director of Undergraduate Studies in
Portuguese, when Yale created that position. She also taught a graduate
course on Masterworks of Brazilian Literature. In Spring,
1978, Rodríguez Monegal brought the renowned Brazilian poet, critic,
and translator Haroldo de Campos as visiting professor, as well as Brazilian
graduate students, including Jorge Schwartz. Rodríguez Monegal
spoke Portuguese and actively promoted interest in Brazilian literature,
especially in its relation to Hispanic American literature. From 1977-82,
Maria Yolanda Umburanas-ODonnell (Lic., U. São Paulo, 1954)
was hired to teach language courses, and she was joined in 1980 by Ronald
Rassner (Ph.D. Wisconsin, 1980). He opened many new courses from 1980-84,
including 359b, Afro-Brazilian Literature, 360a, Afro-Brazilian
Theater, and 361b, Short Story, and 362a, Afro-Brazilian
Oral Narratives, while Batchelor dedicated himself to new graduate
courses, 871b, Literatura de protesto no Brasil, 972a, Decadência
na literatura brasileira, and 571b, Literatura portuguesa:
renascença.
Toward the end of Batchelors long career, Portuguese at Yale entered
a period of transition. Ana Luiza Andrade (Ph.D. Texas 1982) became Director
of Undergraduate Studies from 1982-85 and taught with Batchelor and Rassner.
Rassner offered the first course on Fernando Pessoa in 1982, and Andrade
introduced courses 163b, Brazilian popular culture, and 364a,
Brazil World Writers. Rodríguez Monegal co-taught courses
in Brazilian and Spanish American poetry and narrative with Andrade in
1983-84. The transitional period entered a second phase with the arrival
of Marta Peixoto (Ph. D. Princeton, 1977), an assistant professor who
came to Yale as Director of Undergraduate Studies in 1985. Graduate students
Charles Martin and Horácio Costa taught language courses along
with Peixoto, who also co-taught literature courses with Rodríguez
Monegal (Contemporary Brazilian and Hispanic American Writers).
Peixoto significantly increased the number of new courses in Brazilian
literature, such as 365a, Fiction and Memoirs in Brazilian Modernism,
382b, Brazilian Fiction in the Twentieth Century, 382a, Brazilian
Poetry: Modernism and Avant-Garde, 370b, Modernism and Marginality,
and 350b, Machado and the 19th Century. She was joined from
1986-91 by Leopoldo Bernucci (Ph.D. Michigan, 1986), who taught language,
literature, and culture courses. In 1987-88 Pedro Maligo (Ph. D. Texas
1990) taught Portuguese language courses, and in 1990-91 graduate students
Lúcia Bettencourt and Robert Myers taught the elementary course,
joined in 1991-92 by Kimberly Hastings and Miriam Ayres. In 1991 Peixoto
organized an international conference on the writer Clarice Lispector.
The first Portuguese lector from the Instituto Camões in Lisbon
arrived, Maria dos Santos Duarte, to teach intermediate language and graduate
courses from 1991-93. Duarte introduced new courses on Portuguese literature
and culture. The lectorship ended with her unexpected departure at the
end of the 1992-93 year.
In 1992 K. David Jackson (Ph.D. Wisconsin 1973) was invited as visiting
professor, and in 1993 he was appointed as the second professor of Portuguese
at Yale, after M. Batchelor. Language courses were taught in 1993-94 by
Ana MacDowell and Kim Hastings, until the then Chair Josefina Ludmer helped
to bring lecturers from Brazil to teach language. Alai Garcia Diniz (UFSC-Florianópolis)
taught from 1994-96; Lidia Santos (UFF-Niterói) arrived in 1995;
and Rita Chaves (USP-São Paulo) spent the 1996-97 year. A decisive
change for the fortunes of Portuguese at Yale occurred in 1996, with the
approval of an undergraduate major in Yale College, which is a concentration
requiring coursework both in Portuguese and Brazilian literatures and
a senior thesis. Beginning in 1997-98 Jackson took up the position of
Director of Undergraduate Studies in Portuguese. In that year, Jordano
Quaglia was hired as lecturer of the language courses, a position he held
until 2004. As senior lector Quaglia also taught thematic courses with
language content on International Issues and Brazilian
Regions. António Ladeira arrived from Portugal as the second
lector from the Instituto Camões for the period 1997-2001, after
a long series of negotiations between Jackson and authorities in Portugal.
Ladeira opened a series of new courses on Portuguese and Portuguese-African
literatures and cultures. He also began a one-semester intensive language
course and taught other language courses regularly. In 1996, Lídia
Santos became assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese in a new position
opened to create a bridge between Spanish and Portuguese students. Santos
offered courses on Narrative of Memory, Melodrama: Soap
Operas, Popular Music, and Cosmopolitanism.
Ladeira and Santos developed a successful course in Brazilian and Portuguese
film. In 1999-2000, Daniel Scarfó, a graduate student, taught courses
in conversational Portuguese and Brazilian music and literature. Other
graduate students in the language program include Rachel Haywood-Ferreira
(2000-02), Luz Horne (2002-03), and Estela Vieira (2002-04). In 2003 Marta
Almeida (Ph.D. Florida, 1999) was hired as lecturer in Portuguese. Originally
from Rio de Janeiro, with a doctorate in linguistics, Almeida is now teaching
all of the language courses.
Since 1993, Professor Jackson has added new topics on Brazilian literature,
including the Realist novel, cultural history of the Portuguese world,
modernism, theories of Brazil, 20th century Brazilian literature, Brazilian
and Portuguese fiction, as well as monographic courses on great writers:
Machado de Assis, Fernando Pessoa, Clarice Lispector, and Camões.
Beginning in 2002, Jackson began a series of thematic courses in translation
on Disaster Narratives, Psychology in Literature,
and World Cities & Narratives. In 2005 Yale Summer Programs
will offer the first courses in Brazil, taught by Marta Almeida, Elizabeth
Jackson (Visiting Assistant Professor of Portuguese, Wesleyan University),
and K. David Jackson.
A series of speakers and conferences gave a more active presence and visibility
to the Portuguese program at Yale. The title of Batchelor Fellow
in Portuguese was attributed to visitors who gave a series of lectures,
Raúl Antelo on Brazilian modernism in 1994 and Rip Cohen on medieval
lyric in 2001. Brazilian author Nélida Piñón lectured,
and João Cezar de Castro Rocha was a fellow of the Beinecke Library
in 2002. The roll of visitors includes Helder Macedo speaking on Camões
and many other specialists in Portuguese and Brazilian literatures. In
1995 the Yale Symphosophia on experimental, visual, and concrete
poetry featured the return to Yale of Haroldo de Campos and Augusto de
Campos, as well as luminaries such as Marjorie Perloff. In Spring 1995,
the novelist Milton Hatoum became the first visiting writer, under the
program of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, and in 1996 Silviano Santiago
was visiting professor, teaching courses in literature and culture. In
1998 Yale hosted the first congress of the American Portuguese Studies
Association, honoring the renowned author and scholar Jorge de Sena. In
1999, the first Oxford/Yale joint conference honored the 70th year of
Haroldo de Campos. Other conferences have included Staging Brazilian
and Portuguese Theater (2000), Grand Expositions: Latin American
Modernisms in the Museum (2001), Contemporary Brazilian Novel
(2003), and Between Cultures: Brazil / Europe (2004).
On the graduate level, dissertations on Brazilian topics have always been
permitted under the rubric of Romance Languages. Stephen Reckert (B.A.
1946, Ph.D. 1950) became Camões professor of Portuguese at Kings
College, London and is today a distinguished senior scholar. Among the
first dissertations in Portuguese is Russell G. Hamiltons work on
Brazilian novelist Graciliano Ramos (1965). Hamilton had a distinguished
career in Brazilian and Luso-African literature. After studying with Haroldo
de Campos, María Tai Wolff (B.A. 1980, Ph.D. 1985) wrote a dissertation
in Comparative Literature including Brazilian literature and later published
numerous articles. Recent dissertations on or including Portuguese topics
include Horácio Costa (1994), Robert Myers (1995), Kimberly Hastings
(1995), Miriam Ayres (1995), Daniel Scarfó (1999), Octavio DiLeo
(2001), and Rachel Haywood-Ferreira (2003). Costa is a Brazilian poet
whose dissertation on Saramagos early period was published in Portugal.
DiLeos work on Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Cuban culture was published
in Spain.
Thanks to Malcolm Batchelors dedication to teaching, Portuguese
has been taught at Yale since 1942. Upon retirement, Batchelor created
a fund for Portuguese at Yale, which has supported visitors, lectures,
and especially student fellowships. The generosity of the Batchelor fund
has undoubtedly affected the lives of many Yale students over a twenty-year
period. Since 1995 more than 35 undergraduate and graduate students have
received Batchelor fellowships for summer study in Brazil or Portugal.
Annual grants for summer study in Portugal have also been awarded to Yale
students by the Luso-American Foundation for Development in Lisbon since
the mid 1990s. The long-standing Albert Bildner prizes in Spanish &
Portuguese include two prizes for Brazil. Bildner dedicated his Brazil
prize for seniors to Professor K. David Jackson in 2001. Yales Beinecke
Library has a growing collection of rare books in Portuguese, including
a first edition of Camõess The Lusiads (1572) and
first editions of Fernando Pessoa. The Sterling Memorial Library possesses
a very strong and comprehensive collection of Portuguese, Luso-African,
and Brazilian literatures to support continuing study of Portuguese at
Yale.
Copyright
2004, ISSN 1645-6432
e-JPH, Vol.2, number 1, Summer 2004
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