Sara Andre da Costa
Teaching Associate in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, Faculty of Arts
Contact
Biography
I hold a BA in Portuguese and Romance Languages Linguistics from the University of Lisbon (2003), and following a period teaching music and performance, I returned to academia in 2016 at the University of Nottingham (UoN). There, as a researcher following my MA, PhD and postdoctoral trajectory in Portuguese and Lusophone Studies, and through my pedagogical development as a lecturer at UoN and the University of Cambridge, I have developed a multi-disciplinary investigative profile and a growing international research output (and reputation) in the fields of Languages, Comparative Literature/Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, the Philosophy of Language and Intermediality.
I have been a Teaching Associate in Portuguese at the University of Nottingham (Modern Languages and Cultures, and The Language Centre) since 2017, in which role I deliver a wide range of seminars and lectures in the undergraduate languages programme. I have also contributed to two undergraduate modules at UoN: "Introduction to Lusophone Cultures and Societies", which focus on identities and identity formation, as represented or articulated in literary, cinematic and visual texts; and "Culture and Society across the Portuguese-speaking World", a module that develops students' expertise in literature, film, music and art of the Lusophone world.
I am a visiting tutor at the University of Cambridge, since 2023, contributing to the module "Introduction to the Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Portuguese-speaking World", which offers a panoramic view of the of Portuguese-speaking countries' literatures and cultures. As such, it necessarily covers a wide spectrum of texts and media (cinema and visual arts) in a comparative perspective based on four topics: "The Politics of Empire and Nation", "Gender, Sexuality, Love", "Forms of Otherness", and "Authority and Violence". I was fortunate at Cambridge to also have the further opportunity to develop my academic competences by supervising a BA dissertation on the Mozambican author Paulina Chiziane, something which brought me into contact with a subject area that did not fit neatly to my own research specialisms.
In 2019, I was awarded my MA by research (with Distinction) from UoN, with a dissertation entitled "Herberto Helder: os gestos do poema", focusing on the creative process of the poet Herberto Helder. I subsequently received Faculty of Arts funding to pursue my PhD at UoN and was awarded the doctorate in 2023. My dissertation, "Clarice Lispector e Herberto Helder: do mito ao texto", is the first comparative study of Lispector and Helder's writings and represents an original and significant contribution to the study of twentieth-century literary writing in Portuguese.
In December 2019, I co-organised with Dr Rui Miranda the International Conference "Saudade de conversar contigo" to celebrate the 100 years of Sophia de Mello Breyner and Jorge de Sena, two of the most eminent personalities of the Portuguese literary landscape of the XXth century.
Since 2021, I have led a collaborative research and teaching project with Dr Federico Bertolazzi from the Università di Roma "Tor Vergata", which involves the signature a Memorandum of Understanding between UoN and Roma, and reflects a desire for different ways to collaborate in the shared goals and values of the two universities' research leadership programmes, and provide a space for participants to share reflections and practices in the area of the Portuguese and the Portuguese-Speaking countries Literatures and Cultures Studies. Presently, I am co-leading a multidisciplinary research project on the Portuguese poet Maria Teresa Horta with Dr Bertolazzi, which will result in an exhibition titled "O Corpo das Palavras". This event, will provide a literary-critical interpretation through visual arts of Horta's poetry. The main objectives of the project are to organize a colloquium/series of seminars on poetry translation and the trans-codification process between literature and painting, aiming to engage both an academic and public audiences.
Teaching Summary
I have been a Teaching Associate in Portuguese at the University of Nottingham (Modern Languages and Cultures, and The Language Centre) since 2017, in which role I deliver a wide range of seminars… read more
Research Summary
Both my MA and PhD projects stemmed from, and further developed, my interdisciplinary instincts and interests in language, comparative literature, poetry, performance and reception. My MA… read more
Recent Publications
SARA COSTA, 2021. Um imenso outrar-se: leituras herberteanas em pessoa. In: FRANCESCA PASCIOLLA and RUI GONÇALVES MIRANDA, eds., Fernando Pessoa: abordagens 6. SPLASH Editions. 244-264
2019. Walt Whitman in Fernando Pessoa - Literary Review Hispanic Research Journal: Iberian and Latin American Studies. 20(3), 311-313 2019. Herberto Helder: poeta-poema Tamanha Poesia: Poesia Portuguesa Moderna e Contemporânea II: construções e variações. 4(7), 384-397
2024:
- Participant at the colloquium 25th April and the 'Democratic Third Wave', held by the University of Nottingham's Centre for Memory Studies and Post-Conflict Cultures, with a paper entitled Ana Hatherly and the post-Revolution democratic gestures.
2019:
- Participant at VIII ABIL Conference (September), a conference dedicated to Lusophone Literature and Cultures at the University of Ebinburgh (United Kingdom). I presented a paper entitled Tapeçarias: do tecido poético em A Máquina de Emaranhar Paisagens, de Herberto Helder.
2018:
- Participant at University of Nottingham's SPLAS PGR Community Forum (June). I presented a paper entitled Herberto Helder: the poet-poem.
- Participant at II Colóquio de Poesia Portuguesa Moderna e Contemporânea (May), a conference dedicated to Portuguese poetry at the Universidade Federal Fulminense (Niterói, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil). I presented a paper entitled Herberto Helder: poeta-poema.
2017:
- Participant at After Clarice - Lispector's Legacy (November), a conference dedicated to the work of the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector at the University of Oxford. I presented a paper entitled Mutatis Mutandis - Ausências Comunicantes.
2016:
- Participant at Congresso Internacional Herberto Helder - Uma Vida Inteira a Fundar um Poema (November), dedicated to the work of the Portuguese poet Herberto Helder at the University of Madeira, Portugal. I presented a paper entitled Clarice Lispector e Herberto Helder: a procura continua.
2002:
- Participant at XVIII Congresso Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística (Congress of Portuguese Linguistics Association), School of Languages and Literature - University of Oporto, Portugal. I presented a paper entitled Carta de Marear para a Morfologia.
I have been a Teaching Associate in Portuguese at the University of Nottingham (Modern Languages and Cultures, and The Language Centre) since 2017, in which role I deliver a wide range of seminars and lectures in the undergraduate languages programme. I have also contributed to two undergraduate modules at UoN: "Introduction to Lusophone Cultures and Societies", which focus on identities and identity formation, as represented or articulated in literary, cinematic and visual texts; and "Culture and Society across the Portuguese-speaking World", a module that develops students' expertise in literature, film, music and art of the Lusophone world.
I am a visiting tutor at the University of Cambridge, since 2023, contributing to the module "Introduction to the Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Portuguese-speaking World", which offers a panoramic view of the of Portuguese-speaking countries' literatures and cultures. As such, it necessarily covers a wide spectrum of texts and media (cinema and visual arts) in a comparative perspective based on four topics: "The Politics of Empire and Nation", "Gender, Sexuality, Love", "Forms of Otherness", and "Authority and Violence". I was fortunate at Cambridge to also have the further opportunity to develop my academic competences by supervising a BA dissertation on the Mozambican author Paulina Chiziane, something which brought me into contact with a subject area that did not fit neatly to my own research specialisms.
As I believe that language acquisition can be encouraged and facilitated through a rich and varied range of activities, which include introducing students to specific elements of Lusophone culture, such as literature and cinema, I regularly organise extra-curricular activities. In these, are included the "Lusophone Cinema Cycle" and the "Portuguese Christmas Party". I also co-organised with Lorna Kirkby and Mark Sabine (SPLAS) the visit of eminent Portuguese writer Hélia Correia to Nottingham (2017) and the "Contemporary Brazilian Cinema Series" (2018) with Gianlluca Simi (CFM/SPLAS).
In 2019, I coordinated an open, public-facing lecture at the University of Nottingham addressing Víctor Erice's film "La morte rouge (soliloquio)" (2006), focusing on the theme "From trauma to fraternity: the interstice between reality and fiction" by Lourdes Monterrubio Ibañez (Università Complutense di Madrid).
Current Research
Both my MA and PhD projects stemmed from, and further developed, my interdisciplinary instincts and interests in language, comparative literature, poetry, performance and reception. My MA dissertation "Herberto Helder: os gestos do poema", focussed upon the experimental creative process of the poet Herberto Helder, reflecting on the ways through which one can observe the different poetic gestures involved in the poem's embodiment process. This research led to a published book-chapter "Um imenso outrar-se: leituras herberteanas em pessoa" in the edited volume "Fernando Pessoa: Abordagens" (ed. Francesca Pasciolla & Rui Gonçalves Miranda, SPLASH Editions, 2021), as well as an invitation to write a literary review of Francesca Pasciolla's book "Walt Whitman in Fernando Pessoa" for Hispanic Research Journal: Iberian and Latin American Studies.
My PhD thesis, Clarice Lispector e Herberto Helder: do mito ao texto, awarded in 2023 and funded by the School of Arts - Culture, Languages and Area Studies CLAS Doctoral Fund, elaborated upon my MA research, and is the first comparative study of Lispector and Helder's writings. As such, it represents an original and significant contribution to the study of twentieth-century literary writing in Portuguese. The thesis allowed me to evidence how the recurrency of themes such as religion, abjection, language and the poetic subject contributed to the construction of an idea of the act of writing as a field of performative ambivalence, where the act of writing simultaneously constitutes a theory of writing, i.e., a poetica. The thesis also shows how both authors, in the fundamental pursuit of a renewed poetic language, use different linguistic and rhetorical techniques that disrupt the general rules of discourse.
My PhD offered me the opportunity to disseminate my research findings in high-profile academic settings in the UK, Portugal and Brazil, while developing a strong academic network. In this context, in 2016 I participated in the Congresso Internacional Herberto Helder - "a vida inteira para fundar um poema" (Universidade da Madeira), with the communication "Herberto Helder e Clarice Lispector: a procura continua". In 2017, I presented a paper at the University of Oxford, "Mutatis Mutandis: ausências comunicantes" at the International Conference After Clarice: Lispector's Legacy. And in 2018 in Brazil, I contributed a paper entitled "Herberto Helder: poeta- poema" to II Colóquio de Poesia Portuguesa Moderna e Contemporânea at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, funded by the University of Nottingham's CLAS PG Research Fund, which resulted in the publishing of an article with the same title in the literary journal "Tamanha Poesia. Poesia Portuguesa Moderna e Contemporânea II: construções e variações" (2019). Meanwhile, I have presented several papers at UoN since 2016, including "Herberto Helder: the poet-poem" in 2018.
In 2018, I published a co-authored article titled "A Hora da Estrela: texto-imagem" in the online journal Polifonia. Still in 2018 and funded by the Universidade Federal do Matogrosso (Brazil), I was an invited lecturer at that institution to offer a lecture on Clarice Lispector and Herberto Helder for the post-graduation programme in "Estudos da Linguagem". In 2019, I co-organised the International Conference 'Saudade de Conversar Contigo - 100 Years of Sophia and Jorge de Sena', funded by the Instituto Camões, which brought together scholars from Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, and the UK to share their research. In the same year, I presented the paper "Tapeçarias: do tecido poético de 'A Máquina de Emaranhar Paisagens' de Herberto Helder" at the ABIL Annual Conference (University of Edinburgh, UK Scottland). In 2024, I presented my preliminary research on Hatherly at the International Colloquium "25th April and the 'Democratic Third Wave'", held by the UoN's Centre for Memory Studies and Post-Conflict Cultures, with a paper entitled "Ana Hatherly and the post-Revolution democratic gestures", a preliminary approach to Hatherly's performative and cinematic post-April 1974 creations.
Recently, in 2024, I presented my preliminary research on Hatherly at the International Colloquium "25th April and the 'Democratic Third Wave'", held by the UoN's Centre for Memory Studies and Post-Conflict Cultures, with a paper entitled "Ana Hatherly and the post-Revolution democratic gestures", a preliminary approach to Hatherly's performative and cinematic post-April 1974 creations.
Future Research
My present research focus on the shifting creative aspects of PO.EX, the Portuguese Experimentalist Movement, as well as of two of its most active members, Salette Tavares (1922-1994) and Ana Hatherly (1929-2015), providing a contextually informed (from a sociopolitical and aesthetic standpoint), comparative and detailed analysis of their work while highlighting the impact of their literary and artistic production (poetry, performance, installation and spatial poetry) on the political and cultural context pre- and post-1974.
SARA COSTA, 2021. Um imenso outrar-se: leituras herberteanas em pessoa. In: FRANCESCA PASCIOLLA and RUI GONÇALVES MIRANDA, eds., Fernando Pessoa: abordagens 6. SPLASH Editions. 244-264
2019. Walt Whitman in Fernando Pessoa - Literary Review Hispanic Research Journal: Iberian and Latin American Studies. 20(3), 311-313 2019. Herberto Helder: poeta-poema Tamanha Poesia: Poesia Portuguesa Moderna e Contemporânea II: construções e variações. 4(7), 384-397 SARA ANDRÉ DA COSTA and RUI GONÇALVES MIRANDA, 2018. A Hora da Estrela: texto-imagem PERIÓDICO POLIFONIA. 25(40.1), 160-176