Residency Period: 03/01/2013 to 02/28/2014
Professor Luis Alberto Brandão is a CNPq researcher and full professor at the Faculty of Letters of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), where he has worked since 1996 in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programs in Literary Studies. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature (1996) and a Master’s in Brazilian Literature (1992) from UFMG. He held postdoctoral work at the University of São Paulo (2004-2005) and at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2010-2011). He is leader of the research group Literary and Transdisciplinary Spaces. An essayist and fictionist, he has published, among others, the books Grafias da identidad: literature contemporary and national imaginary (Finalist of the Jabuti Prize in the category of theory/literary criticism), Um Olho de Vidro: the narrative of Sérgio Sant’Anna (National Prize for Literature City of Belo Horizonte, essay category), Rain of letters (National Prize for Literature João-de-Barro, Finalist of the Jabuti Prize, Book selected for PNBE 2011, National School Library Program, from MEC), Manhã do Brasil (Finalist of the Portugal Telecom Prize and Finalist of the São Paulo Prize for Literature), Saber de Pedra: the book of statues (Bolsa Vitae de Artes: literature) and Tablados: book of books.
SPACE AS A TRANSDISCIPLINARY CATEGORY
The project “Space as a transdisciplinary category” aims to investigate, from a metatheoretical and comparative perspective, fundamental questions linked to the ways in which the space category is used in some areas of knowledge. Based on the diversity of functions and meanings attributed to the category within the scope of Literature Theory, we seek to critically ascertain how this diversity manifests itself in the following areas: Philosophy, Physics, Architecture and Urbanism, Geography, Semiotics, Linguistics, Theory of Art (other areas may be incorporated into the investigation, based on contact with the respective researchers). It is intended in particular: a) to evaluate the parameters that, in each area, validate the term as a concept, as well as the historical variations of such parameters; b) inquire into the existence of conceptual lines of force that, in the conformation of the space category, are common to more than one area; c) evaluate to what extent these lines of force are inserted in broader theoretical traditions, which perhaps represent comparable paradigms of knowledge, d) analytically link the ways of approaching space in each area to the epistemological assumptions − definition of objects of study study, circumscription of the conceptual field, establishment of research methodologies − which govern it; e) verify the existence of incipient or little-known possibilities for the theoretical treatment of space in each area, questioning to what extent they constitute expansions of already consolidated possibilities.