Carmen Miranda
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UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS/ INGLÊS E LITERATURA CORRESPONDENTE War-Joy and the Pride of Not Being Rich: Constructions of American and Brazilian National Identities through the discourse on Carmen Miranda por LUIZ FELIPE GUIÍ^LARÃES SOARES Tese submetida à Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina em cumprimento parcial dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de DOUTOR EM LETRAS FLORIANÓPOLIS Outubro de 2001 Esta dissertação de Luiz Felipe Guimarães Soares, intitulada War Joy and the Pride of Not Being Rich: Constructions of American and Brazilian National Identities through the discourse on Carmen Miranda, foi julgada adequada e aprovada em sua forma final, pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/ Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, para fins de obtenção do grau de DOUTOR EM LETRAS Área de concentraçao: Inglês e Literatura Correspondente Opção; Literaturas de Língua Inglesa jâ2 1 0 ! ,êda Maria Braga Tomitch Coordenadora BANCA EXAMINADORA Anelise Reich Corseuil Orientadora e presidente Renãlã Mautner Wasserman Co-orientadora Júlio\ Diniz Examinador Raúl Hector Antelo Examinador érgio do Prado Bellei Examinador Florianópolis, outubro de 2001 To Nara and Beniardo 111 Acknowledgements This dissertation would not be possible without the help of the following people and institutions: In Brazil: Anehse Reich Corseuü, Capes, CNPq, UFSC, Programa de Pós- Graduação em Inglês (UFSC), Tânia Oliveira Ramos, Sérgio do Prado Bellei, Raúl Hector Antelo, John Caughie, Antônio João Teixeira, Genilda Azeredo, João Hemesto Weber, Liane Schneider, Lenora Guimarães Soares, Jorge Cunha, Museu Carmen Miranda (Iberê Magnani, ex-director, and César Balbi, director), Júho Diniz, Pedro Leite, Beto Xavier, Simone Pereira de Sá, Pedro de Souza, José Roberto O’Shea, Walter Carlos Costa, Claudia de Lima Costa, Zahidé Muzart, Susana Funck, Fábio Lopes, Rafael Villari, Anderson Itaborahy, Guy Schmidt, Tom Figueiredo de Almeida, Maria José .AngeU de Paula, Edson de Pieri, Cátia Brizola Weber, Joao Resende, Élvia Bezerra, Flávia de Ohveira Morais, and my students of Film Critics and Analysis at Unisul, PaUioça-SC/Brasil. In the U.S.: Renata Maumer W*asserman, The English Department of Wayne State University, the Purdy-Kresge Library, Arthur Marotti, Robert Burgoyne, Jeny Herron, Erik Marshall, Ross Pudaloff Cynthia Erb, Debra Peterson, Leslie Brill, Henry Golemba, Myrtle Hamilton, the fimctionaries of the Purdy-Kresge Library, and the directors of the Yankee Air Force Museum. And, above all, to Nara and Bernardo * * * Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Portuguese to English in this work are my own. This dissertation was submitted to the committee on October 26, 200 L IV Abstract This dissertation presents an analysis of representations of Brazilian and American national identities circulating in the U.S. and in Brazil from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of World War II. On the one hand, this study shows that the many images of American national identity circulating during the war, informed by the paradigm of ideals proposed by the founding fathers in 1776, and aimed at the possibility of leading a “better world” in the future, made up the idea of an hyperbolic war-joy choreography. On the other hand, it shows that due to the lack of a historical paradigm of Brazilian national ideals, images of Brazilian national identity' have been affected by a tradition of self-doubt, self-pity, and resignation, and that in the 1930’s, there arose an association between “being American” and “being rich”, in opposition to “being Brazilian” and “being poor.” From this historical viewpoint this research focuses on two films stared by Carmen Miranda — That Night in Rio (1941) and The Gang's All He?'e (1943) — highlighting, among other complexities, the conflicting encounter between the industrial normatization of Hollywood productions and the deep indefinition that characterizes some cultural elements considered characteristically Brazilian. In so doing, it is possible to suggest a way to couteract the reductionism of many texts on Brazilian and American national identities, affected by presuppositions of national essence and by oversimplified notions of histor>' as moved by causalit\’ and individual will. Resumo Proponho nesta tese uma análise de representações de identidades nacionais brasileiras e americanas que circularam nos Estados Unidos e no Brasil, do im'cio do século XX até o finai da segmida grande guerra. Quero mostrar, por um lado, que as imagens de identidade nacional americana propostas na época da guerra formaram a idéia de mna hiperbóhca coreografia da alegiia da giierra, guiada pelo paradigma proposto pelos founding fathers em 1776 e com objetivo de liderar um “mundo melhor" no futuro. Por outro lado, quero mostrar que, na falta de um paradigma histórico de ideais nacionais, as imagens de identidade nacional brasileira têm sido afetadas por uma tradição de descrença, aiito-comiseração e conformismo, e nos anos 30 acabaram estabelecendo a associação entre “ser americano” e “ser rico”, em oposição a “ser brasileiro” e “ser pobre”. A parth dessa contextualização, pretendo anahsar dois fihnes com participação de Carmen Miranda — Uma noite no Rio (1941) e Entre a loura e a morena (1943) — destacando, entre outras complexidades, o encontro conflituoso entre a normatização industrial exigida pelas produções de Hollywood e a profunda indefinição que caracteriza elementos culturais brasileiros considerados nacionais. Com isso quero sugerir um cammho para uma superação do reducionismo de muitos textos sobre identidades nacionais brasileiras e americanas, afetados pelo pressuposto da essência nacional e por noções simplistas de verdade histórica com base na causalidade e na vontade individual. VI Table of Contents Introduction; Causality, Will, and National Essence.....................................................I 1) Tlie American War-Joy Choreography .....................................................................19 Grids ............................................................................................................................24 A glorious goal and war-joy.......................................................................................31 The right method and choreography......................................................... .................44 “A nation in flux”........................................................................................................56 Busby Berkeley’s choreographic synthesis...............................................................60 2) Samba and the Pride of Not Being Rich....................................................................64 The tradition of self-doubt, self-pity, and resignation......................... ......................66 Hiding the poor........................................................................................................... 72 Samba composers: from outlaws to heroes...............................................................77 Poor is beautiful..........................................................................................................82 Domestication and resignation of the morro....... .....................................................93 “Hello boy, hello Johnny” ....................................................................................... 102 3) Hollywood and Ambivalence in Rio...................................... .................................110 Modernity, ambivalence, and the Good Neighbor context ....................................112 A continental war-joy choreography .................................................................... 128 4) The Disciplined Choreography of Incorporation ..................................................153 Choreographing the assembly line...........................................................................156 The non-Ajnericans ...................................................................................................160 An innocuous incorporation......................................................................................172 Conclusion: The Right to Be Ambivalent...................................................................184 Bibliography and Filmography.....................................................................................196 \ii Introduction: Causality, Will, and National Essence How that red rain hath made the harvest grow. (Byron) Ah! Um urubu pousou na minha sorte! (Augusto dos Anjos)' Many popular jokes, which are retold in Brazil from generation to generation, have a common narrative structure along the same two steps: (1) an American or European cultural reference, either to a supposedly enviable, dependable technology (rockets, aiq)lanes, cars), to a supposedly skillful, healthy or powerful well-known person (president, hero, sex symbol), or even to a famous landscape, is presented as a synthesis of a successfid civilization; (2) the corresponding reference (mechanism, landscape or person) is presented in its Brazilian version, which has not worked at all, as if showing the failure of Brazilian civilization. One of those many jokes, circulating from the late 70’s on, compares the Six-MiUion-Dollar Man, that bionic hero performed by Lee Majors in the homonymous American TV series, with Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, from Mary Shelley’s work, and suggests that the latter was actually a Brazilian creature, developed by the coimtry’s