Week 9 - Brazil 2
PART 1. Urban Realities: Favelas and Mega-Sporting Events in the Marvelous City
Associated Readings
With the FIFA Soccer World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in August 2016, the city of Rio de Janeiro has been getting a lot of attention these days. Known as "the marvelous city" (a cidade maravilhosa), Rio has long functioned in the imagination of outsiders as a symbol for Brazil itself--or rather, for outsiders' fantasies of Brazil. On the one had, Rio evokes images of beautiful beaches populated by scant-clad women and men. On the other hand, Rio increasingly triggers associations with urban violence, kidnapping, and flying bullets. You can see the full range of these associations and stereotypes in the following 10-minutes clip from The Simpsons --> http://youtu.be/os9BbZ_MGdwd. (Enjoy!)
Comedic value aside, this Simpsons episode serves as a reminder about something important: that stereotypes utterly pervade our understandings of Rio (and of Brazil more generally). The reading by Erika Larkins will take you deep into the favelas of Rio, giving powerful and troubling accounts of how ordinary favela residents position themselves in different ways in relation to the drug trade, to gangs, and to tourists. The amazing film, "City of God" (for this week's film forum) presents the violent, intersecting trajectories of a group of boys growing up in one of Rio's largest favelas.
For more recent updates on the megasporting events described by Zirin and Mier (brace yourself, the Mier piece isn't a happy story), please check out the slides I've saved on Blackboard ("Brazil material extra"), especially the various update clips within them.
Associated Readings
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Kees Koonings, “Violence, Crime, and Insecurity since 2000: Local Dynamics and the Limitations of Federal Response,” pp. 150–75
- Erika Larkins, selections from The Spectacular Favela, pp. 109-13
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Dave Zirin, “Target-Favelas,” pp. 173-204. Brian Mier, “Rio’s Olympic Hangover,” NACLA 48(4), pp. 311-314 (2016)
Associated Films
“City of God” (2002, 130 minutes; sources: STL, Netflix/DVD, Amazon.com)
With the FIFA Soccer World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in August 2016, the city of Rio de Janeiro has been getting a lot of attention these days. Known as "the marvelous city" (a cidade maravilhosa), Rio has long functioned in the imagination of outsiders as a symbol for Brazil itself--or rather, for outsiders' fantasies of Brazil. On the one had, Rio evokes images of beautiful beaches populated by scant-clad women and men. On the other hand, Rio increasingly triggers associations with urban violence, kidnapping, and flying bullets. You can see the full range of these associations and stereotypes in the following 10-minutes clip from The Simpsons --> http://youtu.be/os9BbZ_MGdwd. (Enjoy!)
Comedic value aside, this Simpsons episode serves as a reminder about something important: that stereotypes utterly pervade our understandings of Rio (and of Brazil more generally). The reading by Erika Larkins will take you deep into the favelas of Rio, giving powerful and troubling accounts of how ordinary favela residents position themselves in different ways in relation to the drug trade, to gangs, and to tourists. The amazing film, "City of God" (for this week's film forum) presents the violent, intersecting trajectories of a group of boys growing up in one of Rio's largest favelas.
For more recent updates on the megasporting events described by Zirin and Mier (brace yourself, the Mier piece isn't a happy story), please check out the slides I've saved on Blackboard ("Brazil material extra"), especially the various update clips within them.
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