Reading the Alentejo Landscape: Literary Landscapes as a Pedagogical Tool to Foster Landscape Literacy

Abstract

Supposing that literary landscapes of the Alentejo (southern Portugal) in contemporary Portuguese fiction could be a common ground to activate interdisciplinary dialogues between the field of Environmental Humanities and that of Landscape Studies, my dissertation aims to examine the perceptions of the Alentejo’s rural landscapes over the last 150 years among 16 Portuguese writers who have inhabited the region. It seeks to intertwine humanist approaches of ecocriticism with aesthetic and scientific perspectives from landscape knowledge. Ingold’s ecological anthropology (2000) and Spirn’s “The Language of Landscape” (1998) are my theoretical references in approaching literary excerpts of landscape representations. Adopting a phenomenological approach, inscribed in material and affective ecocriticism, 1,290 excerpts from 65 literary works are studied, drawing on the expertise of landscape architecture. As a corollary of this research, it is concluded that literary landscapes are a promising pedagogical tool to foster landscape literacy among children and young people through affective attention. The rich legacy of literary excerpts is fertile for developing a comprehensive and sympathetic understanding of the landscapes from the beginning of schooling. In order to promote the valorisation, preservation, and development of sustainable landscapes, it is suggested that teacher training programs should incorporate literary landscapes as a unit of study. As an instrument of literary mediation aligned with the European Landscape Convention (Council of Europe, 2000), the proposal raises social awareness about the value of landscapes, including them in the training of teachers and educators, fostering a culture of landscape literacy and civic engagement.