Brazilian Literature: Contemporary Urban Fiction

FAIN: FS-50064-05

Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ 85281-3670)
David W. Foster (Project Director: March 2005 to March 2007)

A five-week seminar for college and university faculty to study contemporary Brazilian urban fiction.

The seminar focuses on five major works of Brazilian urban fiction. Through a detailed examination of these works as literary texts that interpret the urban experience in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre, the seminar provides participants with a grounding in Brazilian literature. Participants will be college and university professors of Latin American studies. Some will deepen prior knowledge of Brazilian literature, while others will receive an introduction to Brazil through literary texts. Portuguese remains a critical language in the U.S., and both the seminar proper and the adjunct language workshop that will be an auxiliary part of the program address the critical lack of trained scholars in the field.