FAVELA UTOPIAS: The Bailes Funk in Rio’s Crisis of Social Exclusion and Violence* -- Paul Sneed -- University of Kansas (2008) Vol. 43/2 Although the failings of capitalism are relevant to Brazil, the promises of what could be called the “Brazilian Dream” involve an understanding of what it means to be Brazilian, often called brasilidade, which makes it different from American ideology. Of course, it is diffi cult to defi ne exactly what constitutes such brasilidade. Nevertheless, certain characteristics can be named that are commonly identifi ed with the Brazilian national personality, including cultural cannibalism, or the open spirit of appropriation of cultural artifacts and practices from foreign civilizations (referred to as antropofagia in the Brazilian context); carnivalesque popular cultural practices (involving euphoric gleefulness, playful inversion of gender and class roles, and social contestation); playful sensuality (sometimes involving androgyny); nostalgia (expressed by the ambivalent and ubiquitous Portuguese term saudade) and deep emotional affect more generally; friendliness; musicality; and malandragem, a term denoting the art of the resourceful rogue capable of using a mixture of qualities such as charm, street smarts, friendship ties, and a hint of dangerousness to maneuver between formal and informal social spheres and to survive in the face of corruption and disparity. One of the most controversial attributes associated with Brazilianness is a characteristically optimistic vision of racial harmony, often referred to in the Brazilian context as “racial democracy.” In many ways, these attributes of the Brazilian national personality have their origins in the cultural practices of the same sort of ordinary, working-class poor people as the ones from Rio’s favelas that make up the funk scene. Ironically, however, even as the traits of this Brazilianness have been gradually appropriated by the middle and upper classes in the evolution of the Brazilian nationalist identity since before independence, the harsh conditions of everyday life facing many of the country’s poor make it extremely diffi cult for them to experience the sort of racial equality, sensuality, humor, and friendliness associated with brasilidade outside of the utopian spaces they create for themselves in cultural practices like funk. Such practices, especially funk, allow everyday people to reappropriate and to reaffi rm these qualities, even as they exaggerate and intensify them in new ways, making it possible for them to continue to use such strategies for their own survival lasa-2.univ.pitt.edu/LARR/prot/fulltext/Vol43no2/03_43.2sneed.pdf
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 01:06:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015