Brazil Imagined: 1500 to the Present

Front Cover
University of Texas Press, Jan 1, 2010 - History - 408 pages

The first comprehensive cultural history of Brazil to be written in English, Brazil Imagined: 1500 to the Present captures the role of the artistic imaginary in shaping Brazil's national identity. Analyzing representations of Brazil throughout the world, this ambitious survey demonstrates the ways in which life in one of the world's largest nations has been conceived and revised in visual arts, literature, film, and a variety of other media.

Beginning with the first explorations of Brazil by the Portuguese, Darlene J. Sadlier incorporates extensive source material, including paintings, historiographies, letters, poetry, novels, architecture, and mass media to trace the nation's shifting sense of its own history. Topics include the oscillating themes of Edenic and cannibal encounters, Dutch representations of Brazil, regal constructs, the literary imaginary, Modernist utopias, "good neighbor" protocols, and filmmakers' revolutionary and dystopian images of Brazil. A magnificent panoramic study of race, imperialism, natural resources, and other themes in the Brazilian experience, this landmark work is a boon to the field.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
Chapter 1 Edenic and Cannibal Encounters
9
Dutch Representations of Brazil and Nativist Imagery
63
Chapter 3 Regal Brazil
106
Chapter 4 The Foundations of a National Literary Imaginary
132
Color section follows page 148
148
Chapter 5 Modernist Brazil
184
Chapter 6 Good Neighbor Brazil
209
Chapter 7 From Revolutionary to Dystopian Brazil on Screen
234
Epilogue Land of the Future
274
Notes
299
Bibliography
335
Index
355
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2010)

Darlene J. Sadlier is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University-Bloomington. She is the author of several books on Portuguese and Brazilian literature and culture, including Nelson Pereira dos Santos.

Bibliographic information