Travels to Backlands of Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa

Undergraduate / Graduate

The "sertões" or backlands of Brazil are composed of a broad and varied number of areas. Since its early usage as all the space beyond the Portuguese gaze during colonial times to its more common identification with the Northeast of Brazil in the twentieth century, it has played an unstable and versatile role in Brazilian history, from rural banditry to the building of the country's capital. This course will study the variety of sociocultural facets with which the term "sertão" has been identified in Brazil, with a focus on the twentieth century. We will also examine how this trope of colonial discourse would take on a different connotation in Angola and Mozambique due to the attentive reading of Brazilian literature by Angolan and Mozambican writers. Authors may include Mia Couto, Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, Euclides da Cunha, Graciliano Ramos, Guimarães Rosa, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Nísia Trindade Lima, Janaína Amado, Alfredo de Taunay, José Luiz Passos, Glauber Rocha, Karim Aïnouz, Marcelo Gomes, Ana Rieper, and Sandra Kogut.