About
Think of Portugal. What is it that you think of? Now, put yourself in a foreign traveller shoes. One that writes and thinks in English. One from the 20th century, or the 19th or 18th century… Does your picture of Portugal change?
The Anglophone Travellers in Portugal project will take you in a journey across distant reading landscapes. What do we mean? For four decades we have been reading anglophone texts about Portugal – 184, to be precise! – and taking good note of what they wrote.
If they mentioned a city, we write it down; if they visited a monastery, a church, a museum or the vineyards, we write it down; if they comment on Portuguese costumes, traditions, characters and stories, believe us, we write it down. But here we do not give you individual perspectives. When put together, these annotations of individual accounts become an entirely different thing altogether: this is distant reading. This methodology allows us to draw a picture of how Portugal was represented, viewed, and visited, giving us a better understanding of it.
Meet Our Team
Maria Zulmira Castanheira
NOVA FCSH
Luciano Moreira
FLUP
Maria Beatriz Rodrigues
NOVA FCSH
Past Team Members
Isabel Relvas
Master Student ISCTE
Behind The Website
This website was designed not just for specialists, but for everyone who wishes to navigate through the experiences of Anglophone Travellers in Portugal. Through the use of non-technical and friendly language, we welcome everyone.
The colour scheme was curated with the theme of travel in mind. After thoughtful consideration, the colour yellow was elected, alongside other shades of yellow and brown, to mimic the earthy tones encountered by visitors in Portugal.
To define the website’s identity even further, we took into account the Portuguese territory and its relevance for this project. With this idea of a territorial representation in mind, we sought to create a relationship between the Portuguese frontiers’ outlines and the website’s textual content. In awe of the distinct topographic characteristics of Portugal, we outlined, cut, and mounted a three-dimensional, physical, map to visually represent the territory in which this project dwells. With a game of light, shadows were expressed to enhance the varying elevations spread across the Portuguese regions. This map can be found in multiple instances across the website.
This website was designed and developed by Guilherme Vila Maior and Matilde Ferreira under the guidance of Luciano Moreira who was strongly involved throughout the process.
Guilherme Vila Maior
Designer
Matilde Ferreira
Designer
