2024/08/28

Symposium “Camões: No poet is an island”



“Camões: No poet is an island”

SYMPOSIUM


1st OCT. 2024

Hispanic Society Museum & Library, 613 West 155th Street, New York, USA


Partnering Institutions:

Embassy of Portugal to the United States of America 










Camões’ 500th anniversary at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library

"Portugal’s most famous poet, Luís de Camões (c. 1524-1580), announced his desire to be heard everywhere and wished that Chronos, the “devouring time”, would spare his work. Nevertheless, in spite of this proclaimed ambition (and although the fourth continent had already acquired its place and its name in cartography), it seems unlikely that our poet could have ever imagined himself to be remembered, half a millennium later, in America. In celebrating his five hundredth anniversary in New York, our aim is to show that Camões – a symbol of a changing world – not only spoke to all times but also that his words are worthy of global attention.

Contextualizing Camões will also provide an opportunity to explore cultural relations in the sixteenth century and to highlight the role played by European humanists and artists throughout such a fascinating period."




PROGRAM


Morning Session:

Moderator: José Muñoz

10h10
Opening remarks, HSML & FGM

10h15
"Camões’ Questions"
"Camões poses unanswered questions to the reader throughout his poetry, from rhetorical to metaphysical. His questions capture the existential predicament and paradox of his age, that of the world against itself, the disconcert of nature, and the futility of human hopes. 
By questioning the very nature and possibility of poetry in a world of exile, Camões confirms its inexpressible and occult ideals through the rigorous and unrelenting self-analysis of this direct questioning."
Kenneth David Jackson | Yale University


11h00
"But they lack the brush, they lack the colors: Portuguese painting in the time of Camões"
"When Camões was born, Portugal was experiencing one of the most creative moments in its painting. With a predominant Flemish influence and a system of organizing the most relevant artists at the court, a notable group of painters worked on large projects under royal administration. The altarpiece of the Church of Paraíso (MNAA), from 1523, perfectly shows the flavor of the time. 
When Camões died, some of the most important painters working at the court were Spanish, including Fernão Gomes, Camões's portraitist, and both Spanish and Portuguese masters alike practiced a refined Romanism, already sensitive to the spirit of the Catholic Reformation. 
The poet's entire life takes place in a time "composed of change", as he wrote: between Christian humanism and the counter-reformation, between the opening of education to a society dominated by index prohibitions and the inquisition and between the period of the most significant expansion of Portuguese power in the world and its loss of independence. 
This paper aims to explore the essence of the artistic debate and the most relevant authors who marked Portuguese visual culture in Camões' time."
 Joaquim Oliveira Caetano | Diretor, MNAA


11h45
“The Hidden Fire: Word and Lyric Knowledge of a Changing World”
"Taking as a point of departure Camões’s well-known sonnet “Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver,” this paper seeks to elucidate how select lyric compositions reflect a changing knowledge of the world that is perhaps more immediately evident in Os Lusíadas. 
The paper proposes that the traditional distinction of lyric and epic poetry can be misleading in the case of Camões, since the poet enlists literary composition as a laboratory of sorts to work through problems of shifting configurations of knowledge and their relation to the written word."
Josiah Blackmore | Harvard University


12h30 - 13h00
 Debate / Q&A


13h - 14h: lunch break 


Afternoon Session:

Moderator: Jo Ann Cavallo

14h00
"Diana, Acteon and their dogs. Camões rearranges crime and punishment"
"The myth of Acteon, as it appears in the famous episode of the Island of Love (Lusiadas, IX), has been frequently visited by critics, and there is general agreement since Faria e Sousa that it bears a political meaning. 
This presentation reinterprets Camões's use of the myth in the wider context of other versions and contemporary anonymous poetry satirizing king Sebastian."
José Miguel Martínez Torrejón | Queens College, CUNY


14h45
"Os Lusíadas: the poem and the new measure of the world"
"In order to read Os Lusíadas, the use of cartography acquires an extraordinary importance. No doubt, Camões praises the description of maps and makes of it a significant part of his poem. Is this a common practice in Renaissance? 
How close are Os Lusíadas to their poetic context? Comparing Camões’s choices with those of authors such as Jerónimo Corte-Real in Sucesso do Segundo Cerco de Diu (1569), Alonso de Ercilla in La Araucana (Part I, 1569) or Lodovico Ariosto in Orlando Furioso (1516, 1532) will reveal us singular, noteworthy aspects of the history of epic poetry in the 16th century."
Isabel Almeida | Lisbon University


15h30
"Honest study" versus "long experience": Knowledge and nature in Camões
"A long tradition of commentators has already noted the presence of scientific motifs in Camões's poetry, especially in Os Lusíadas. 
Writing at the height of Portugal's maritime explorations and discoveries, it is not surprising that Camões echoed not only the collective enthusiasm of the period but also the wonder provoked by geographical and scientific novelties associated with these voyages. 
Indeed, Camões's knowledge about the natural world was vast and Os Lusíadas is rich in geographical, botanical and astronomical details. It has not been noted, however, that in his epic poem Camões takes a clear position in a lively intellectual debate that divided Portuguese intellectuals throughout the sixteenth century. The polemic was centred around the conditions, the methods and the most influential agents for the acquisition of knowledge about nature.
The fact that Camões addresses these topics confirms the importance of the debate in Portuguese society and adds a further element for the characterisation of his intellectual profile."
Henrique Leitão | University of Lisbon


4h15
Debate / Q&A


4.45-5 : Closing Remarks [HSML & FGM]

5-6 : Cocktail reception






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Redação: 28.08.2024, atualizado em 8.09.2024
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