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 Ratings
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| Reviewed: |
Nov 26, 2002 by World Languages Editorial Board |
| Overview: |
Jornal de Poesia is a site that originated from the author's concern about the
underpresentation of Lusophone literature on the web. Since initially authoring
this site in 1996, Soares Feitosa has collected and organized a massive body
of poetry, literary criticism, links to the various Lusophone Academies of
Letters, examples of the Northeastern Brazilian popular "Literatura de Cordel",
children's poetry, and his own original poems. More than 3000 poets and literary
critics are represented on this site. It is also the home of the online journal,
Agulha, which, at the time of this review, was in its 29th edition
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| Learning Goals: |
The user will learn about the poetry and the 'arte poetica'of Lusophone writers.
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| Target Student Population: |
Fluent Portuguese readers will be the major users of this site. There is a page
called Lusofonia traduzida that offers some works in translation.
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| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
Fluency in Portuguese
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| Type of Material: |
Collection
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| Recommended Uses: |
Students of Brazilian and Lusophone literature will find this a rich resource.
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| Strengths: |
The vast quantity of primary texts in Portuguese make this site a kind of
virtual library of Lusophone literature. The author, both poet and student of
poetry, catalogues works of many genres and includes well-known and unknown
voices. In addition to the primary texts, he engages the users in an ongoing
dialogue on poetry. Some of these conversations are quite modern and timely, as
in the case of a professor who sent in a tale of students caught up in the
syndrome of "Copy and Paste". Apparently students e-mailed her not to engage
her in a serious literary discussion on Monteiro Lobato, but to get the answers
to basic research questions for their homework assignment. They were
using the web to get an easy grade on their assignment. The Jornal de Poesia
printed this professor's lament for all to read and opened up his own discussion
of the disingenuous use of online discussions. The whole made for lively,
thought-provoking reading.
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Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool |
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| Strengths: |
The resource benefits of this site are enormous. Users are likely to
find obscure works that they would not find easily elsewhere. In many libraries,
Lusophone collections are frequently dated and limited. The Jornal de poesia
contains hard to find works.
Soares Feitosa encourages readers to send him links to their own poetry pages
which he then includes among the external links on his site.
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Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty |
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| Strengths: |
In general, Jornal de poesia is visually interesting, with culturally
appropriate graphics and an appealing look. There is easy access to the 3,000
poets and critics right on the home page along with e-mail links to the author.
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| Concerns: |
It may seem a bit different to non-native speakers of Portuguese to find the
3,
000 poets catalogued by the first letter of their first name. The different
links on the home page could be better organized. It would be beneficial to
develop a clearer navigation scheme for the collection as a whole and to
distinguish between individual works, journals and anthologies.
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| Other Issues and Comments: |
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