Description
Book SynopsisA unique contribution to film studies, Richard Gordon’s Cinema, Slavery, and Brazilian Nationalism is the first full-length book on Brazilian films about slavery. By studying Brazilian films released between 1976 and 2005, Gordon examines how the films both define the national community and influence viewer understandings of Brazilianness. Though the films he examines span decades, they all communicate their revised version of Brazilian national identity through a cinematic strategy with a dual aim: to upset ingrained ways of thinking about Brazil and to persuade those who watch the films to accept a new way of understanding their national community.
By examining patterns in this heterogeneous group of films, Gordon proposes a new way of delineating how these films attempt to communicate with and change the minds of audience members. Gordon outlines five key aspects that each film incorporates, which describe their shared formula for and role in constructing socia
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Influencing Understandings of Brazilianness in O Aleijadinho: Paixão, glória e suplício (2000)
2. Modeling National Identity on Religious Identity in Cafundó (2005)
3. Multiple, Provisional, National Identity Models in Quilombo (1984)
4. Alternative Understandings of the National Community in Chico Rei (1985)
5. Flirting with Viewers and Precariously Rethinking Brazilianness in Xica da Silva (1976)
Notes
Works Cited
Index
