Reconfiguring Brazil: Interdisciplinary Essays (Auckland Latin American Studies (ALAS) Book 1) (English Edition)

This first volume in the Auckland Latin American Studies (ALAS) monograph series consists of eight interdisciplinary essays on Brazil that cover cross-cultural approaches on topics in colonial history, art history, comparative literature, contemporary film, and modern architecture by specialist scholars from Brazil, New Zealand, and Australia. The authors and topics include: (1) Roberto González-Casanovas on the rise and fall of religious tolerance of Jews and New Christians in Portuguese and Dutch colonial Brazil. (2) Diane Brand on cultural politics of royal spectacle by land and sea of the Portuguese court in Lisbon and then in exile in Rio de Janeiro. (3) Genaro Oliveira on revisions of official national history in texts and paintings that construct independent Brazil’s Empire and Republic. (4) Marcelo Mendes de Souza on comparisons of levels of reception of English literature by Brazilian novelist Machado de Assis and Argentine writer J.L. Borges. (5) Aline Frey on the film City of God’s realist techniques in portraying favela insiders. (6) Sarah McDonald on cultures of violence and corrupt authorities in the films Tropa de Elite 1 and 2. (7) Rosangela Tenorio on bioclimatic regionalism in a comparative study of four architects from Brazil, Mexico, and India who design sustainable cities. (8) Roberto Segre’s wide-ranging assessment, in the year of Oscar Niemeyer’s death, of the trajectory and legacy of Brazil’s premier architect.