Faculty of Letters
The Faculty of Letters (Portuguese: Faculdade de Letras), FLUL, was created in 1911, although it's predated by the Superior Studies in Letters (Curso Superior de Letras), created in 1859 by King Pedro V, from which all students and professors were transferred.
It remained on the grounds of the Superior Studies, an annex to the Academy of Science until 1957, when it changed to the current building, in the University City (Cidade Universitária). In 1975, a new pavilion was built to accommodate the large influx of students who arrived after the democratization of Superior Education in Portugal, a consequence of the Carnation Revolution. The pavilion, theoretically provisional, still stands today. In 2001, two new buildings were finished: one to accommodate new classrooms and the Computer Room, and the Library Building, which is now the second biggest library in Portugal.
Although the faculty's graduation with most studies is modern languages and literatures (Línguas e Literaturas Modernas) (which has a number of variants, including studies in Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, German and Italian), it also offers philosophy, history (and archeology), African studies, Asian studies, European studies, cultural studies and classical studies (the degree itself is named classic languages and literatures). It is also the former home of the degree in psychology. In the mid-1980s a new Faculty of Psychology was created to accommodate it.
Famous professors at the faculty include the first President of the Portuguese Republic, Teófilo Braga and writers Vitorino Nemésio and Urbano Tavares Rodrigues.
The most famous former student, who attended for less than a year, is the poet Fernando Pessoa. Fialho Gouveia, a noted Portuguese television presenter, attended the Romance Philology course at the Faculdade de Letras but dropped out in order to follow a successful career in radio and television. The writer Luiz Pacheco was a student at FLUL before dropping out. The actress Alexandra Lencastre and Moonspell frontman Fernando Ribeiro also attended the philosophy course but did not graduate. Famous musician and composer Fernando Lopes-Graça also dropped out of FLUL. Football player and manager Artur Jorge graduated by FLUL after has been a student at the University of Coimbra's FLUC.
Read more about this topic: University Of Lisbon, Faculties
Famous quotes containing the words faculty of, faculty and/or letters:
“To write well, to have style ... is to paint. The master faculty of style is therefore the visual memory. If a writer does not see what he describes—countrysides and figures, movements and gestures—how could he have a style, that is originality?”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)
“Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“It is the highest and most legitimate pride of an Englishman to have the letters M.P. written after his name. No selection from the alphabet, no doctorship, no fellowship, be it of ever so learned or royal a society, no knightship,—not though it be of the Garter,—confers so fair an honour.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)