Seminários & Workshop

      Literatura,

                   Antropologia

                                 & Darwin

21 e 22 de Julho de 2011

Auditório do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belém, Pará. 

Este ciclo de seminários e workshop nasceu da curiosidade de descobrir a intersecção entre a Literatura, Antropologia e Darwin, na “era” post-Darwiniana. A temática central explora a forma como a Antropologia foi utilizada por escritores Ingleses dedicados ao estilo Gótico / horror. Será também discutida a forma como a ciência, com ênfase na Antropologia, foi utilizada como veículo para explorar o erotismo e pornografia numa Inglaterra Vitoriana dos meados do século 19. A par deste tema central serão também exploradas outras áreas de interface da literatura, antropologia e ciências sociais, no contexto da Amazónia.

Devido à temática abrangente do tema, o publico alvo destes seminários e workshop é amplo: alunos, pesquisadores, professores das áreas da Literatura e Ciências (Sociais e Biológicas) são bem-vindos a assistir e participar. Devido à componente bilíngue, e neste caso o workshop será discutido essencialmente em Inglês, os participantes devem ter um domínio razoável de Inglês (leitura e oralidade), sendo também uma oportunidade para prática do mesmo.

SEMINÁRIOS: 21 Julho (13:30-17:30h)

As palestras serão apresentadas em formato bilíngue.

WORKSHOP: 22 Julho (13:30-17:30h)

O workshop é da responsabilidade do Prof. Dr. Matthew Brinton Tildesly e será ministrado em Inglês. Espera-se uma participação ativa dos participantes. O workshop terá como base a leitura e discussão de dois contos de Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde e Olalla: sendo aconselhada a leitura prévia dos mesmos (para quem poder), mas não obrigatória. As inscrições no workshop estão limitadas a um máximo de 20 participantes. Cópias dos livros serão facultadas para os trabalhos do workshop.

INSCRIÇÃO por email: lit.anth.and.darwin@gmail.com

ATUALIZAÇÔES NO BLOG: http://literatureanthropologydarwin.blogspot.com/

Palestrantes convidados:

Aldrin Moura de Figueiredo / Universidade Federal do Para / Belém / Brasil.

Gunter Karl Pressler / Universidade Federal do Para / Belém / Brasil.

Matthew Brinton Tildesley / Universidade de Seul / Coreia do Sul.

Organizadores: Prof. Dr.ª Francisca Alves Cardoso1,2 Prof. Dr .  Matthew Brinton Tildesley3	1 PPGA, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, UFPA. 2 CRIA, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. 3 Universidade de Seul, Coreia do Sul.
Colaboradores: Ariana da Silva e Silva Alexandre  Silva (desenhos)	Mestranda PPGA, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, UFPA. Mestrando PPGCS, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, UFPA.

Seminars: 21 July. 13.30-17.30

Organizers:

Prof. Dr.ª Francisca Alves Cardoso and Prof. Dr. Matthew Brinton Tildesley

The “New Science” of Anthropology played a very interesting role in the development of various genres of Literature in post-Darwinian Victorian Britain.  The proposed series of seminars and lectures will explore how new developments in Biological Anthropology were used by writers of Gothic horror to play on the Victorians’ fear of degeneration in the post-Darwinian era.  Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) is an enduring landmark in the Gothic horror tradition. However, very few of the myriad modern interpretations of this tale dwell on the book’s central fears for its contemporary readers. Influenced by E. W. Lankester’s Degeneration: A Chapter in Darwinism, the central, shocking horror for Stevenson’s readers in the late 1880s was the realization that evolution was not necessarily progressive.  Jekyll and Hyde plays on British society’s newfound fears of biological and social degeneration, by moving the classic territory of Gothic horror from the aristocratic Catholic past (or the Catholic, foreign “other”) to the atavistic threats within the human body itself. Another of Stevenson’s lesser-known stories, Olalla (1885) also uses the concept of degeneration in an interesting re-writing of the classic vampire tale.  Using a more classic Gothic setting of an ancient, aristocratic, Iberian catholic family, typically Gothic curses such as madness and vampirism are shown as having their roots in biological degeneracy, rather than more typically Gothic supernatural causes. In addition to Anthropological details shaping stories within Victorian literature, the whole science of Anthropology played a very interesting role in the illicit erotic and pornographic book trade. Following a change in the Obscene Publications Act in 1868, books with erotic content could avoid prosecution if they were published privately and circulated amongst upper-class scholastic clubs and societies. The new science of anthropology provided an ideal setting for books detailing the sexual practices of the ancients or foreign, “savage” peoples, sexual diseases, perversions, or even prurient medical reports. Publishers such as “Charles Carrington” (the Portuguese-British Paul Harry Ferdinando), made a living from disguising erotica as scientific study, or repackaging genuine scientific works for the erotic market.

PALESTRAS CONFIRMADAS

·        Sex, Horror and the Victorians: Anthropology and Nineteenth Century British Literature.

Sexo, Horror e os Vitorianos: Antropologia e a Literatura Inglesa do Século 19.

Matthew Brinton Tildesley / Universidade de Seul / Coreia do Sul.

·        Pintura versus fotografia: antropologia e história visual na Amazônia (1880-1940).

Painting versus Photography: Anthropology and visual history in the Amazon (1880-1940).

Aldrin Moura de Figueiredo / Universidade Federal do Para / Belém / Brasil.

·        Gurupá — das Ruínas aos Cemitérios. As Viagens de Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado (1751-1759) e de Dalcídio Jurandir (1929, 1978) na Baixa Amazônia.

Gurupá — from the Ruins to the Cemeteries. The Travels of Francisco X. Mendonça Furtado (1751-1759) and Dalcídio Jurandir (1929, 1978) in the Lower Amazon.

Gunter Karl Pressler / Universidade Federal do Para / Belém / Brasil.

Workshop: 22 July 13.30-17.30

Organizers:

Prof. Dr.ª Francisca Alves Cardoso and Prof. Dr. Matthew Brinton Tildesley

Workshops: Dr Darwin and Mr Stevenson - Prof. Dr. Matthew Brinton Tildesley

These workshops will focus on two short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Olalla. Having watched Coppola’s excellent version of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire story, Dracula, students will explore the strange world of Stevenson’s vampiric Olalla.  Set in 19^th Century Spain, Olalla re-draws the boundaries of the classic vampire story, weaving contemporary fears of biological degeneracy into the classic Gothic pattern of a ghoulish return of ancient, aristocratic, Catholic monsters.

Following this lesser-known Stevenson story, the workshop will focus on Stevenson’s masterpiece of Victorian terror, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.  This psychological and biological horror story introduces whole new realms to the Gothic genre. Ancient British or continental Catholicism is replaced by the human body itself as the site for atavistic Gothic return, shattering the Victorian vision of a benevolent, progressive evolution. Divisions between the noble and the savage are utterly destroyed by Stevenson, as his ingenious tale uses Darwinian theories to terrify contemporary Imperial Britain. The workshops will be centered around discussion, and guided, close reading of the texts.

Workshop & final lecture: Anthropology and the Erotic Book Trade - Prof. Dr. Matthew Brinton Tildesley

This final, short lecture will show how the “new science” of Anthropology came to the aid of publishers of erotica and pornography in mid-to-late Victorian Britain. In 1868, a change to the Obscene Publications Act sought to outlaw all works containing obscene images or text. However, the specific wording of the law gave rise to a whole new sub-genre of erotic literature which used anthropology as a cover for publishing erotic texts. Creative publishers, such as the infamous Anglo-Portuguese “Charles Carrington,” and the Londoner, Leonard Smithers, blurred the line between serious scientific texts and illicit erotic literature. As the legal definition of pornography put more emphasis on readers than the intent of the author or publisher of a work, attempts to define the sordid from the scientific, the low from the lofty, were at times quite comical.

The text studied in the workshops will be The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson *

*This contains Jekyll and Hyde and Olalla, and students should read these stories before attending the workshop.

Penguin Books will be donating a few copies of this book to participating students, free.

It would be an advantage to read the stories of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Olalla before the workshop, if possible, though it is not essential to do so in order to participate.