HISTORY 387: Brazilian Fantasy, History, and Culture Fall 2015
Professor Ben Cowan Course Time and Location: Email: [email protected] Tuesday, 4:30-7:10PM Office: Robinson B-377D Planetary Hall 212 Office Hours: Th 3-5 and by appt
COURSE DESCRIPTION Samba! Sex! Soccer! What do these stereotypes about Brazil reflect? Where do they come from? The Portuguese phrase país do samba e do futebol—“the country of samba and soccer”—expresses a sometimes ironic self-consciousness about these hallmarks of identity and perception of what Brazil is, both in Brazil and beyond. So, then, what is Brazil—or Brazilianness? In this class we will think about the ways in which people and cultures in Brazil have developed, been represented, been fantasized about, and why these things are so. We’ll explore where samba comes from and how it came to be Brazil’s “national” dance; why Brazil has so often been identified with sensuality and sexuality, especially sensual femininity; and what does make soccer important in Brazil. We’ll think about how and why ideas about Brazilianness range from deep, medieval Catholicism to oversexed libertinism; from “savage” and “underdeveloped” to urbane and techy; and from “Latin” to African to indigenous. At the heart of our stories will be questions about sexuality, gender, race, nation-building, and identity—we will use sources ranging from novels to sociological studies to films to analyze the ways these tropes have shaped the idea of Brazil, within and without.
REQUIRED TEXTS (AVAILABLE AT LIBRARY RESERVE or for purchase):
Darlene Sadlier, Brazil Imagined: 1500 to the Present K. David Jackson, Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story (OA) Robert M. Levine, John Crocitti, and Orin Starn, The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics (BR) Roger Kittleson, The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil Jorge Amado, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon José de Alencar, Iracema Alma Guillermoprieto, Samba
Certain required readings will be available in an *online reader* (denoted on the syllabus by “ER”). You can access these readings via the class website. In addition to written material, several films are suggested for the course. Some are optional, but highly recommended. You may optional and required films on reserve at the library.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING FACTORS: 1. Attendance, Readings and Discussion (40%): Students are expected to attend all class meetings. I recommend that students complete each week's reading in its entirety before the first meeting of that week; failing such completion, students must come to each class having read the assigned material corresponding to that particular date and having prepared to participate actively in discussion. We will discuss reading strategies in our introductory class, but students who find it difficult to complete readings on time should feel free to visit me during office hours for additional assistance. 2. Response papers (20%): Each student will choose two primary documents from the syllabus and submit a response paper corresponding to each. The paper is due at the end of the week (by Friday at 5pm) in which we discuss that particular document. Thus each student will submit two response papers over the course of the term, due at the end of the weeks of his or her choice. Response papers must analyze a primary document, in light of the secondary sources for that week. Students should respond to the following questions: “What, if anything, does this document tell us about Brazil itself? What does it tell us about ideas about Brazil, Brazilians, and Brazilianness? How does the document’s and the author’s context play a role in what the document contains and what it tells us?” Response papers must conform to the following specifications: three to five pages in length; word-processed; double-spaced; in 12-point, Times New Roman or Cambria font with standard (1-inch and 1.25-inch) margins; and proofread until free of spelling and grammar errors. 3. Historiography Paper (30%): Each student will submit a ten-page historiography paper on the relevant topic of his or her choice. We will discuss potential topics and strategies during our first meeting. 4. Final Examination (10%): In lieu of a traditional final examination, we will meet to allow students to present their research to the group.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS
1 SEP—Course Introduction. Sadlier, Brazil Imagined, Introduction Pero Vaz de Caminha, “The First Letter from Brazil” (ER)
8 SEP—Europeans in the Garden: “Discovery” and Encounters Sadlier, pp. 9-83 Images from Hans Staden and Theodore de Bry in Sadlier Film: Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês Film: Desmundo (in Portuguese—just watch enough to get a sense of it) Leila Lehnen, “Questionable Genealogy: History and Nation in Ana Miranda's Desmundo” Chasqui 34, no. 2 (2005): 48-61 (ER) (This is a copy I have annotated for you—focus on the highlighted portions.) Film [OPTIONAL]: Hans Staden
15 SEP—National and International Fantasies of Imperial Brazil Sadlier, pp. 107-131; 132-149 (Skim, focusing on Iracema) Alencar, Iracema Maria Graham, Journal of a Voyage to Brazil (excerpt) (ER) Ida Pfeiffer, Travels through the Brazils (excerpt) (ER) Paintings by Jean Baptiste Debret o https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_people_in_Br azil_by_Jean-Baptiste_Debret “Slavery and its Aftermath,” Brazil Reader (hereafter “BR”) pp.120-145 Film [OPTIONAL]: Quilombo
22 SEP—Regional Fantasies: The Amazon Scott Wallace, “Meet the Head Bashers,” from The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes (ER) Theodore Roosevelt, The River of Doubt (excerpt) (ER) Moacir Scliar, “The Last Poor Man” (Oxford Anthology, hereafter “OA”) Footage of Roosevelt and Rondon Expedition o Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKXOtJeaTEQ o Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToqblXc05us Candace Slater, Entangled Edens: Visions of the Amazon (excerpt) (ER)
29 SEP—Regional Fantasies: The Northeast Amado, Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (first half) Gerald Greenfield, “Drought and the Image of the Northeast” (BR, pp. 100-103) Graciliano Ramos, “The Whale” (OA) Films: Excerpts from o Glauber Rocha, Black God, White Devil (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol), 1964; o and Escrava Isaura (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-nCy7WnFwM) o (You needn’t watch all of each of these; just get a sense of how each is representing the Northeast. Then again, if you can’t resist finding out what happens to Isaura….) Gilberto Freyre, “A vanishing way of life” (BR, pp. 91-93) Films [OPTIONAL]: o Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, 1976, Bruno Barreto) o Gabriela (1983, directed by Bruno Barreto) o Vidas Secas (Barren Lives, 1963, Nelson Pereira dos Santos)
6 OCT—Two Brazils: Country versus City “A Mirror of Progress”; “City of Mist”; “The History of the Huni Kui People”; “Urban Indians” (BR pp. 93-99, 110-112, and 432-441) Érico Veríssimo, “Fandango: The Life and Death of a Gaucho” (OA) Film: Bye, Bye, Brazil (Carlos Diegues, 1980) Film: Central Station (Walter Salles, 1998) Films [OPTIONAL]: o Rio 40 Graus (Rio, 100 degrees Farenheit, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1955) o Dois Filhos de Francisco (Two Sons of Francisco, Breno Silveira, 2005) o Guerra de Canudos (Sérgio Rezende, 1996)
13 OCT—NO CLASS, COLUMBUS DAY
20 OCT—SEX, THE CITY, AND THE NATION: CARNIVAL AND CARMEN MIRANDA Natasha Pravaz, “Where Is the Carnivalesque in Rio’s Carnaval? Samba, Mulatas and Modernity,” Visual Anthropology 21, no. 2 (2008): 95-111 Roberto Da Matta. “Carnival as a Cultural Problem” (ER) Victor Turner, “Carnival in Rio” (ER) Edson Farias, Carnival, from ReVista (ER) João do Rio, “The Baby in Rose Tarletan” (OA) Film: Bananas is my Business (Helena Solberg, 1995) [OPTIONAL]: Helena Solberg, “Bananas is my business” (BR pp. 471-474) Film [OPTIONAL]: The Gang’s All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943)
27 OCT—READING DAY
3 NOV—RACE Film: Black Orpheus (Marcel Camus, 1959) Film: That Man From Rio (Philippe de Broca, 1964) Myrian Sepúlveda dos Santos, “Black Orpheus and the Merging of two Brazilian Nations,” European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 71 (October 2001): 107-116 Leslie Rout, “Brazil: A Study in Black Brown and Beige” (BR, pp. 367-373) Abdias do Nascimento, “The Myth of Racial Democracy” (BR, pp. 379-382) Clarice Lispector, “The Smallest Woman in the World” (OA) Ann-Marie Nicholson, “Música Soul: The Soundtrack of the Black Power Movement in Brazil” o http://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/06/03/m%C3%BAsica-soul-soundtrack- black-power-movement-brasil Paulina Alberto, “When Rio Was Black: Soul Music, National Culture, and the Politics of Racial Comparison in 1970s Brazil,” Hispanic American Historical Review 89, no. 1 (2009): 3-39. Carlos Palombini, “Notes on the Historiography of Música Soul and Funk Carioca,” História Actual Online 23 (2010): 99-106. [OPTIONAL]: Paul Sneed, “Favela Utopias: The ‘Bailes Funk’ in Rio's Crisis of Social Exclusion and Violence,” Latin American Research Review 43, No. 2 (2008): 57-79
10 NOV—SEX AND THE NATION Amado, Gabriela (second half) Don Kulick, Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture Among Brazilian Transgender Prostitutes, Introduction (ER) Natasha Pravaz, “Performing Mulata-ness: The Politics of Cultural Authenticity and Sexuality among Carioca Samba Dancers,” Latin American Perspectives 39 (2012): 113-133. Thaddeus Blanchette and Ana Paula da Silva, “Our Lady of Help: Sex, Tourism, and Transnational Movements in Copacabana,” Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies 8 (2010): 144-165. [OPTIONAL]: Ruth Landes, The City of Women [OPTIONAL]: Alexander Edmonds, Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil
17 NOV—SOCCER Roger Kittleson, The Country of Football (Introduction, Chapters 1-2; skim details on Garrincha and Pelé) Christopher Gaffney, Temples of the Earthbound Gods (excerpt) (ER) “Two Essays on Sports,” (BR, pp. 497-504) [OPTIONAL]: Gaffney, Temples of the Earthbound Gods (Chapter 3) Film [OPTIONAL]: Heleno (José Henrique Fonseca, 2011)
24 NOV—VIOLENCE Film: Cidade de Deus (Fernando Meirelles, 2002) Film: Tropa da Elite (José Padilha, 2007) Rubem Fonseca, “Large Intestine”; Carlos Heitor Cony, “Order of the Day” (OA)
1 DEC—SAMBA Natasha Pravaz “Hybridity Brazilian Style: Samba, Carnaval, and the Myth of ‘Racial Democracy’ in Rio de Janeiro,” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 15, no. 1 (2008): 80-102 Alma Guillermoprieto, Samba (Prologue, “A Little History,” “Baianas I,” “Early January,” and “Parade”) Bryan McCann, “The Invention of Tradition on Brazilian Radio” (BR, pp. 474- 483)
8 DEC—COUNTRY OF THE FUTURE: BRAZIL TODAY Film: Macunaíma (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969) Machado de Assis, “Dona Paula,” and Lima Barreto, “The Man Who Knew Javanese,” (OA) Daniel Buarque, “One Country, Two Cups: The International Image of Brazil in 1950 and in 2014: A Study of the Reputation and the Identity of Brazil as Projected by the International Media During the Two FIFA World Cups in the Country,” International Journal of Communication 9 (2015): 1300–1318 Sean Mitchell on World Cup Coverage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKqfyzHYO7o