PORT 3520 - [New Realisms: Recent Literature and Cinema from Brazil]

(LA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

Next offered 2014-2015. Conducted in English.

P. Erber.

How can a film or novel describe, represent, or simply display reality “as it is”? Conversely, how can art intervene in “real life” and bring about social change? The realist turn in Brazilian film and literature brought back these critical questions with renewed strength. The course explores the rise of a realist aesthetics in Brazilian literature and cinema since the 1990s: it discusses the historical precedents and conflicting developments of this new Brazilian realism through feature films, documentaries, novels, and short stories. we will contextualize contemporary Brazilian cinema and discuss the theoretical and political implications of the new realist aesthetics.