Brazil and the dialectic of colonization

Auteur(s) :

Bosi, Alfredo (1936-2021) Découvrir l'auteur

Résumé

A triumph of Brazilian literary criticism and historiography, Brazil and the Dialectic of Colonization explores the unique character of Brazil from its colonial beginnings to its emergence as a modern nation. This translation presents the thought of Alfredo Bosi, one of contemporary Brazil's leading intellectuals, to an English-speaking audience. Bosi scrutinizes signal points in the creation of Brazilian culture - the plays and poetry, the sermons of missionaries and Jesuit priests, the Indian novels of José de Alencar and the Voices of Africa of poet Castro Alves. His portrait of the country's response to the pressures of colonial conformity offers a groundbreaking appraisal of Brazilian culture as it emerged from the tensions between imposed colonial control and the African and Amerindian cults - including Catholic-influenced ones - that resisted it. Wide-ranging and provocative, Brazil and the Dialectic of Colonization reconcieves the material and symbolic processes behind colonization, and daringly links the economic practices of its agents to their means of survival, their memory, their ways of representing themselves and others, and their desires and hopes. - Note de l'éditeur