Syllabus for Portuguese 246_ Modernism and Voodoo_ African Diaspora Cosmogonies and the Brazilian...

8/20/2019 Syllabus for Portuguese 246_ Modernism and Voodoo_ African Diaspora Cosmogonies and the Brazilian Avant-gardes

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Course Syllabus

Modernism and Voodoo: African Diaspora Cosmogonies and the Brazilian Avant-gardes

Professor Rodrigo Lopes de Barros

T 5:00-7:00 - Boylston Hall, 335

Office Hours: T 3:00-5:00 or by appt. Boylston Hall, 327

[email protected]

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to analyze the role and influence that African-derived religions had on the construction of the 20 century avant-gardes in Brazil.

African Art and Religions influenced man y defining figures of Brazilian culture from literature to visual arts and music, be coming a remarkable p henomenon that

ouches many fields of knowledge such as art history, anthropology, political science, cinema, philosophy, urbanism, literary criticism, ethnomusicology, folklore a

religion. During this course, it will be proposed to use the dialectical image of Brazilian modernist movements and African-derived religions as a model with a focuson Brazil to approach the cultural tensions under aesthetic and political agendas, revolutionary and conservative social thoughts, cosmopolitan and national claims

of modernity, and utopian propositions to the transformation of art and society.

Grading

Term paper (40%); Four response essays with a cultural cross-reading (40%); seminar participation and presentation assignments (20%);

Presentation: Each student will choose 1 book from the list below and they will comment and present it to the class on the specified date (15-20min).

The presenter should post a draft of their presentation on-line by Sunday 12:00pm. Other students should respond it, adding their comments and own interpretatio

by Monday 12:00pm. Then, the presenter will revise their work incorporating the discussion. The presenter will be expected to cross-read the assigned text with

other readings of the day. They will lead the class during the discussion of all material.

Term Paper: The term paper will focus on developing and deepening one of the subjects seen in the course. Students will undertake an independent writing projec

in consultation with the instructor. Students may research about one of the directors, authors, artists seen during the course, they can also choose another one tha

is related to the topic of the class, or they can work on an interdisciplinary project. The paper will be of 15 pages (double space, 12).

Four Response Essays: Students will choose a cultural artifact from their research and cultural interests: it can be a book, a monument, a historical event, a work o

art, a film, a piece of music, or other relevant object for them.

On the first essay (1 page, single space), they will describe the artifact.

For the next three essays (also 1 page, single space), they will choose a text from those read in the class—one different text per essay. In the first part (paragraphof the essays, they will summarize the chosen text. In the second part, they will cross-read the text with their artifact. The text will be used to give a new meaning to

he artifact, crating a dialectical image.

It is an opportunity to go through the recommended texts, as they are mostly theoretical. It is believable that they can produce a better cross-reading.

Paper will be read aloud to the class and then turned in.

Course Website

Films, texts, grades and assignments: http://canvas.harvard.edu.

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Notice

* The content of this syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s description. Students will be notified in class or by e-mail. Please always refer to the course

website for the most updated syllabus.

Class Schedule

eek 1: Introduction: Punk and Macumba.

Film and Discussion: David Byrne, Ilé Aiyé: The House of Life.

eek 2: Before the Avant-garde I – Brazil as the New Haiti? – Revolution and Poisoning; Voodoo and The Serpent in Nineteenth Century Brazil; Joaquim Manue

de Macedo, As Vítimas-Algozes; Hegel, Haiti and the Western Thought; Fetishism: From Africa to Marx. Marx, Fetishism and the Emergence of the Political Avant

garde.

Required:

1. Joaquim Manuel de Macedo, As Vítimas-Algozes: Quadros da Escravidão.

2. C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, Prefaces, Prologue, Chapter I and IV.

3. Susan Buck-Morss, “Hegel and Haiti,” published in Critical Inquire, Vol. 26, n. 4.

Suggestions for further readings:

4. Carlolyn Fick, Making Haiti: Saint Domingue Revolution From Below , Part I.

5. Karl Marx, Capital , Vol I, Chapter I, Section IV.

6. Jossianna Arroyo, Writing Secrecy in Caribbean Freemasonry , Chapters 3 and 4.

Response paper 1. Not graded.

eek 3: Before the Avant-garde II – Positivism and Scientific Racism in Brazil: The case of Nina Rodrigues. Fetishism in Brazil. The Raise of Scientific Racism an

he Idea of Degeneration in Art; Slave Trade and Art Trade; Bernal’s Black Athena and The Nineteenth Century View of Classical Greece; Eurocentrism and

Afrocentrism;

Required:

1. Nina Rodrigues, O animismo fetichista dos negros baianos, 27-36, 50-68.

2. Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Vol. I, The Fabrication of Classical Greek 1785-1985 , Chapters VI and VII.

3. Film: Homo sapiens 1900 by Peter Cohen.


4. Nina Rodrigues, Os Africanos no Brasil .

5. Max Nordau, Degeneration, Book I, Chapter I-IV

6. Césare Lombroso; Gina Lombroso, Criminal Man, Part I, Chapter I.



eek 4: From the European Avant-gardes to Macumba in Brazil – João do Rio, Lasar Segall and Benjamin Péret: The Tropical Flâneur, in Rio de Janeiro the

Streets Are Alive with Macumba. Lasar Segall and the Encounter with Afro-Brazil. Benjamin Péret and the Black Rebellions: Palmares, Revolta da Chibata and the

Battleship Potemkin.

Required:

1. João do Rio, As religiões do Rio.

2. Jorge Schwartz, “Lasar Segall: um ponto de confluência de um itinerário afro-latino-americano nos anos 1920.”

3. Benjamin Péret, O Quilombo dos Palmares.


4.Walter Benjamin, The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2006, 46-135.

5. Sigmund Freud, “Animism, Magic and the Omnipotence of Thoughts,” in Totem and Taboo.

6. Rosalind E. Krauss, The Optical Unconscious, chapter 1.

eek 5: European Avant-Garde and Brazilian Modernism I: The Machine and the Primitive. Technology and Mysticism. The Historical Time and The Avant-Garde

Time. Chronological Distance and Spatial Distance. Time and Anthropophagy. Anthropophagy and Black Poetry. Anthropophagy and Music. Anthropophagy and

Trance.

Required:

1. Oswald de Andrade, Anthropophagous Manifest.

2. Jorge de Lima, selection of poems.

3. Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story Of Music And Revolution In Brazil , selections.


4. João Cezar de Castro Rocha, “‘Futures Past’: On the Reception and Impact of Futurism in Brazil.”

5. Aracy Amaral, Tarsila do Amaral , selections.

6. Susa Buck-Morss, “On Time,” chapter of Dreamworld and Catastrohpe.

Response paper 2. (Readings to be used: weeks 2-4)

eek 06: European Avant-Garde and Brazilian Modernism II: The Writing of the Magical Black and Indigenous, Macunaíma. The Afro-Brazilian Religions and

Modernism. Eshu and Macunaíma. Mário de Andrade and his Collection of Brazilian Folk Art. On Ethnographic Surrealism in Brazil.

Required:

1. Mario de Andrade, Música de feitiçaria, selections.

2. Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Macunaíma, 1969 (Film).

3. James Clifford, On Ethnographic Surrealism.


4. Marta Rossetti Batista, the Catalog of Mário de Andrade’s Collection of Folk Art [Coleção Mário de Andrade: religião e magia, música e dança, cotidiano] ,

selections.

5. Raúl Antelo, “Macunaíma: Apropriação e Originalidade.”



6. Kimberle S. López, “Modernismo and the Ambivalence of the Postcolonial Experience: Cannibalism, Primitivism, and Exoticism in Mário de Andrade’s

‘Macunaíma.’”

eek 07: European Avant-Garde and Brazilian Modernism III: From Osório César to Arthur Bispo do Rosário. Psychiatry, Fetishism and Art; The Fetish and the

Sculpture; The avant-garde unconscious and the primitive unconscious; The beginnings of “outsider art” and its culmination with Bispo do Rosário; Messianism,

Insanity and Race.

Required:

1. Osório César, “A Arte Primitiva dos Alienados”.

2. Osório César, A arte nos loucos e vanguardistas.

3. Luciana Hidalgo, Arthur Bispo do Rosário: o senhor do labirinto.


4. Osório César. A Expressão Artística dos Alienados.

5. Arley Andriolo, “A psicologia da arte no olhar de Osório Cesar: leituras e escritos”.

6. Roger Cardinal, Outsider Art, London, 1972.

7. Lombroso, The Man of Genius.

eek 8: From Modernism to Contemporary Art: From Fetishism to Afrominimalism, the work of Emanoel Araújo; Black Art and Curatorship: Emanoel Araújo, from

“Afrominimalism” to the Construction of the Museu Afro Brasil ; African Cosmogonies in the Ceramic Art of Francisco Brennand’s Lost Paradise: Francisco Brenna

Racial Democracy and the Neobaroque: Tiles and skin color in Adriana Verajão.

Required:

1. Adriana Varejão, Entre Carnes e Mares.


2. George Nelson Preston, Emanoel Araújo: Brazilian Afrominimalist .

3. Francisco Brennand, Diálogos do Paraíso Perdido.

4. Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Pérola imperfeita: A história e as histórias na obra de Adriana Varejão.

5. Emanoel Araújo, “Exhibiting Afro-Brazilian Art.”

6. Olívio Tavares de Araújo, Brennand .

7. Candace Slater, “Folk Tradition and the Artist: The Northeast Brazilian ‘Movimento Armorial.’”

Presentation 1: Didi-Huberman, Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpêtrière.

eek 9: Photography and Voodoo I: From a Candomblé in Bahia to the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. Ethnography and Photography. Pierre Verge and the Black

City. Salvador, Havana and Port Prince. Pierre Verge and Africa: the Register of the Ritual and the Encounter with the Architecture of the Diaspora. Pierre Verge

and the Commonality of Santaría, Candomblé and Voodoo.



Required

1. Pierre Verger, Orixás, photos.

2. Lula Buarque de Hollanda, Pierre Fatumbi Verger: Mensageiro Entre Dois Mundos. (Film)

3. Arthur Omar, Antropologia da Face Gloriosa.

4. Ayrson Heráclito, “Incorporations - Afro-Brazilian Contemporary Art”.


3. Ian Walker, “Phantom Africa: Photography between Surrealism and Ethnography.”

4. Perre Verger, Trade Relations between the Bight of Benin and Bahia from the 17 to 19 Century , chapter I.

Presentation 2: Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality , VIII and XI.

eek 10: Transition: From Photography to Orikis. Pierre Verger and Severo Sarduy; Neobaroque and African Derived Poetry in the Americas. Antonio Risério,

Orikis, and Concrete Poetry; Ricardo Aleixo and Severo Sarduy; Edimilson de Almeida Pereira and Afro-Brazilian Poetry. Poems on The Myths of the Orixás.

Required:

1. Edimilson de Almeida Pereira; Ricardo Aleixo, A roda do mundo, p. 30-43.

2. Antonio Risério, Oriki Orixá, p. 126 - 161.

3. Mãe Beata de Yemonjá, Poemas .


4. Severo Sarduy, En el ámbar del estío.

5. Reginaldo Prandi, Segredos guardados: Orixás na alma brasileira.

6. White, Steven F. “A reinvenção de um passado sagrado na poesia afro--brasileira contemporânea”.

7. Haroldo de Campos, Metalinguagem & outras metas .


eek 11: Africa and the Brazilian Avant-garde Cinema I: Jean Rouch and the Ethnographic Cinema. Moi un Noir : The African Face on the screen. Glauber Rocha

Cinema Novo and his Dialetics of Macumba. Black Orpheus and Quilombo: Racial Democracyand the Attempt to Construct a Revolutionary Blackness in Brazil.

Orpheus, Ogum and the Mythology of the City.

Required:

1. Glauber Rocha, Der leone have sept cabeças. (Film)

2. Marcel Camus, Black Orpheus. (Film)

3. Nelson Pereira dos Santos, O Amuleto de Ogum. (Film)

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Date Details


4. Jean Rouch, Moi un Noir . (Film)

5. Cacá Dieges, Quilombo. (Film)

6. Glauber Rocha, “Aesthetic of Hunger.”

7. Glauber Rocha, “Aesthetic of Dream.”

Presentation 3: Robert Stam, Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture.

eek 12: Africa and the Brazilian Avant-garde Cinema II: José Agripino de Paula, Tropicália goes to Africa; Hitler comes to the Third World, to the Tropics; Chaos

and Trance; Dance and Cinema; The Black 68, The Black Psychedelia; Outsider Art, Pop Art, and Mass Art; The infinite novel;

Required:

1. José Agrippino de Paula, Maria Esther (Film).

2. José Agrippino de Paula, Candomblé No Togo.

3. José Agrippino de Paula, Hitler Terceiro Mundo.(Film)


4. José Agrippino de Paula, Céu sobre Água (film).

5. Evelina Hoisel, Supercaos, os estilhaços da cultura em “PanAmérica” e “Nações Unidas” .

6. José Agrippino de Paula, “Entrevista: o desfavorecido de madame estereofônica”

Presentation 4: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism, Introduction, Chapters I, II.

eek 13: AfricanDiaspora Rebellions Revisited by the Brazilian Avant-garde: Gramiro de Matos and the Conspiracy of the Corry Shells; Rebellions and the Orixás

Decolonization and Counterculture; Rewriting Brazilian History. Os sertões and makumba; Theater, Performance and Trance;

Required:

1. Gramiro de Matos, A Conspiração dos Búzios.

2. José Celso Martinez Corrêa, Os sertões. A Terra, vídeo dirigido por Tommy Pietra. (Video).


3. Leonardo D’Avila, “Desbunde e Descolonização: Combate em línguas em Gramiro de Matos”.

4. Florisvaldo Mattos, A comunicação social na revolução os alfaiates.

5. Silvana Garcia, Das Entranhas d’Os Sertões, o Oficina.


Term Paper: 05/12

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