HIST 245
History of Modern Brazil
Last Offered Spring 2015
Division II Exploring Diversity Initiative
Cross-listed AFR 346
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

Brazil has been “the country of the future” far longer than it has been an independent nation. Soon after Europeans descended on its shores, Brazil was hailed as a land of resources so rich and diverse that they would inevitably produce great wealth and global power for its inhabitants. Although this has often lent a booster-ish quality to its descriptions of the country, it has also brought ambiguity–for if the label suggests Brazil’s potential, it also underlies the country’s failure to live up to that promise. Being an eternal “country of the future” must be as much a troubling as a cheering designation. This course will examine the modern history of that country of the future by taking up major themes from independence to the present. Beginning with what was by Latin American standards an easy transition from colony to independent empire, we will analyze the hierarchies that have characterized Brazilian society and their relation to the political and economic evolution of the Brazilian nation-state. The course will give particular attention to the themes of race, gender, and citizenship; national culture and modernity; and democracy and authoritarianism in social and political relations. Combining cultural, political, and social analyses, this course fulfills the Exploring Diversity Initiative requirement by examining a range of written texts and other sources to understand these and other themes in the lives of Brazilians of different social identities and political standings since Independence.
The Class: Format: lecture/discussion
Limit: 40
Expected: 15-20
Class#: 3252
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based on class participation, two short papers, and a final exam
Prerequisites: none; open to first-year students with instructors permission
Distributions: Division II Exploring Diversity Initiative
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AFR 346 Division II HIST 245 Division II
Attributes: HIST Group D Electives - Latin America + Caribbean
INST Latin American Studies Electives
LATS Countries of Origin + Transnationalism Elect

Class Grid

Updated 3:38 pm

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