Critical Thinking & Expression

Critical thinking is described as the analysis of facts in order to form a judgment. As I have researched about important themes and figures in the Lusophone world, I have found that I am drawn to African-Portuguese relations. With this being said, I wanted to examine the writings of Luís Vaz de Camões in order to better understand the beginning of relations between Portugal and Africa as a whole. Luís Vaz de Camões is considered the greatest Portuguese writer. His most famous work, Os Lusíadas, reveals a lot about Portuguese society in the 1500’s and how this has impacted perspectives concerning the outside world. Throughout Os Lusíadas, we ultimately see the misconceived perceptions of the Africans encountered during the Portuguese’s journey to find India. After reading the entire epic poem, I was able to analyze the text and form a judgment, just as critical thinking requires. In my argumentative paper, I sought to prove how the Portuguese and their perceptions of Africa have had an influence on the outside world. Feelings of superiority and dominance expressed in Camões’ writings show the sentiments of the Portuguese explorers, and as a result of this, give us a glimpse into what transformed into a hegemony of European or Western countries over countries deemed as subordinate like those in Africa. Os Lusíadas was first published in 1572, and with this being said, it was extremely difficult to not only read but be able to analyze the text. Yet, with continued persistence and help from Portuguese dictionaries, writing this paper ultimately helped me improve my abilities to analyze and form my own opinions on the writings of others. In order to maintain this ability, I will have to continue to reflect on novels I read; it is not enough to just simply read the words on the page. I want to be able to dissect the words and create my own opinions concerning them.

Along with the argumentative paper, I included a research paper that I did concerning Cape Verdean Creole. As previously mentioned, I am drawn to the Luso-African world, and after spending time in Cape Verde struggling to understand different dialects of this creole, I desired to understand more. An interesting point I realized is that even with shared languages, different countries enjoy life in culturally unique ways. In Cape Verde, although the official language is Portuguese, most learn creole as a first language. Cape Verdean Creole is rare because it is the oldest creole still being spoken. There are many different dialects, and even though its largest influence has been the Portuguese language, it is very hard to understand even for native Portuguese speakers. There is not a lot of written work explaining Cape Verdean Creole, so I wrote a research paper explaining its origins as well as the phonology and phonetics of different dialects. As a result, I think putting Cape Verdean Creole in a historical and social context has allowed me to appreciate it more. This paper in no way gives a complete history and explanation of Cape Verdean Creole, but it does have enough information in order for readers to establish a basic understanding. Going forward, I want to continue to learn as much as possible not only about Cape Verdean Creole but also about other dialects of Portuguese.