Perspectives on Brazil

Catalog description

This course provides an introduction and overview of Brazilian culture. It will study different periods of Brazilian history, through the analysis of films, literature, essays, visual arts, and music. Students will explore different definitions of Brazilian identity and Brazilianness focusing on key topics including the formation of the colonial Brazil and the emergence of the nation of Brazil as a tropical paradise; slavery and abolition; the particularities century; and the contradictions of the modernization process throughout the 20th century. We will consider elements of Brazilian popular culture such as Carnival, Samba, and telenovels, and some of the most important cultural movements of the 20th century, such as Modernismo, Cinema Novo, and Tropicalia. The primary objective of the course is to provide students with the relevant background to understand Brazilian cultural history.