Brazilian Presence: Landscape, Life and Literature

This course explores Brazil's literature and its representation of the country's diverse regional cultures and ecology. The course offers an in-depth discussion of Brazilian society, presenting fundamental texts that portray Brazilian landscape with its diverse eco-regions, people and culture. The program includes major authors such as Euclides da Cunha and his description of the Amazon in the early 1900s; the travels of anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss and his contact with Caduveo, Nhambiquara, Bororo and Tupi indigenous tribes; Mario de Andrade's novel, Macunaima and its ironical representation of Brazilian identity and miscegenation; Guimarães Rosa's short stories that show the imagery of the sertao and its people (the sertanejo culture); Milton Hatoum's novel, The Brothers, and its impressive portray of Manaus city in the 20th Century as an unstable world seen through the lens of Lebanese immigrants. These central books will be discussed together with critical essays about some important historical and contemporary challenges that Brazil has faced and continues to grapple with today.