History of Brazil. Prof. Erik Myrup HIS Office: 1735 Patterson Office Tower Spring Tel: (o), (h) Location: CB 219

Transcription

1 History of Brazil Prof. Erik Myrup HIS Office: 1735 Patterson Office Tower Spring MWF 12:00-12:50 PM Tel: (o), (h) Location: CB 219 Office Hours: MW 1:00-2:15 PM, or by appointment Introduction While leading a fleet of carracks through the South Atlantic in late April 1500, a young Portuguese nobleman stumbled upon the shores of the land we now call Brazil. There was no Carnaval or samba at the time, no soccer or São Paulo, no Rio de Janeiro; just a sandy beach and a handful of stone-age natives. They were brown, all naked, with nothing at all to cover their shame, a scribe later wrote of those who seemed to welcome the Europeans with both body and soul on this first encounter. One week later as the fleet prepared to sail away, several Portuguese jumped ship, attempting to swim ashore and make a new life for themselves in the new land. Thus began the modern history of a country whose multiethnic identity and ever-promising future now span more than half a millennium. The history of Brazil is a dramatic tale one that interweaves stories of slavery, sugar, gold, immigration, gender, and race. Over the course of the semester, we will examine Brazil s history over a period of five hundred years. Central themes include the dynamics of a multiethnic society in colonial Brazil; the establishment of an American monarchy sustained by slavery; the role of abolition and immigration in the rise of a Republican government; and the manner in which industrialization, Marxism, nationalism, and urbanization transformed Brazil during the democracies and dictatorships of the 20th century. Course Requirements The class itself is composed of lectures, readings, discussions, film, written work, and a midterm and comprehensive final examination. All are integral parts of the course and are required for its successful completion. The course is divided into six broad sections that deal with particular periods and themes of Brazilian history. Each lecture is accompanied by a set of readings that will be discussed by students at greater length in class. Students will also be required to attend one film screening outside of class. Final course grades will be based upon each of these elements as follows: attendance, readings, and discussion (20%), two 7-8 page papers (20% each), a midterm (15%), and a comprehensive final exam (25%). All requirements must be completed in order to successfully pass the course. This course is open to graduate students. Accordingly, all graduate students enrolled in the course will have their examinations and papers graded at a higher level than their undergraduate colleagues. Additionally, they will be required to complete additional coursework to be worked out on an individual basis with the instructor at the beginning of the semester.

2 Readings, Discussion, and Attendance (20%) The assigned readings are a fundamental part of the course, and include not only academic articles and monographs, but also documents, letters, travel accounts, and historical fiction. Your performance on the midterm and final examinations and in-class discussions will depend in large part on whether or not you have completed the assigned readings. Participation in reading discussions is a mandatory part of each week s coursework, providing students with the opportunity to be exposed to differing arguments and points of view as well as to ask questions and share their own ideas in preparation for the papers and final examination. In addition to participating in verbal discussion and debate, you will occasionally be required to submit reading evaluations and other short written assignments and will also be required to take weekly reading quizzes. Additionally, course attendance and the film screening will also fall under this portion of your grade. (Please note that attendance is mandatory and that failure to attend class will significantly lower this portion of your grade.) Writing Assignments (40% total) Writing is perhaps the most important aspect of any liberal education. Creative, analytical, and communicative, it is an art and skill that students will use for the rest of their lives. Each of the two papers (20% each) should be between 7-8 pages in length (approximately 1900 to 2200 words not including footnotes and bibliography). All papers should demonstrate research and interpretive skills, and depending upon the particular assignment, will require students to draw upon both primary and secondary sources (including material outside of class reading). Web sources may not be used unless you have prior approval from the professor. All references should be cited with footnotes, and there should be a bibliography at the end of the paper. PLAGIARISM WILL RESULT IN AN E IN THE CLASS. We will discuss the papers at greater length as the semester progresses. For now, students should know that they will be free to be creative and innovative. History is not only about facts, figures, and evidence; it also involves character development, plotting, climax, and resolution as we will further discuss over the course of the semester. Midterm and Final Examination (40% total) All students must take a midterm (15%) and a comprehensive final examination (25%). Each test will be divided into two broad headings, including identifications designed to test students grasp of course material and essay questions that require students to draw upon evidence from lectures and readings to make arguments that support or disagree with particular viewpoints. Policy on Electronic Devices Students are expected to come to class prepared and to pay attention. Electronic devices are learning tools and may be used to take notes, to engage with class discussions, and so forth. During class time, they are not to be used for texting, web surfing, etc. If your use of electronic media becomes a distraction to you or to those around you, you will be asked to leave and will lose the privilege of using such tools in class.

3 Course Readings Books [abbreviated BK in the course schedule] Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro, trans. John Gledson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). - REQUIRED Alma Guillermoprieto, Samba (New York: Vintage Books, 1990). - REQUIRED Thomas E. Skidmore, Brazil: Five Centuries of Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). COMPLETELY OPTIONAL Course Packet [abbreviated CP] Available for purchase at Johnny Print, 561 S. Limestone (approximately $56). - REQUIRED Electronic Readings [abbreviated ER] Available on the course web page. Course Web Page The course web page will be updated from time to time and will include assignments, electronic readings, supplementary material, etc. It can be accessed online at <

4 Course Schedule I. Colonial Beginnings 1/09 Early Modern Portugal 1/11 Discussion and Lecture: (Re) Discovering Indigenous Brazil Pero Vaz Caminha, Letter of Pedro Vaz de Caminha to King Manuel in William Brooks Greenlee, ed., The Voyages of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India (London: Hakluyt Society, 1938), 3-33 (CP). 1/14 European Institutions and Imperial Rivalries 1/16 Discussion: Europeans on the Margins of Empire Hans Staden, Hans Staden: The True History of his Captivity, 1557, ed. Malcolm Letts (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1928), 18-23, 26-29, 33-35, 38, 43-47, 57-59, (CP). 1/18 Discussion: Cannibalism and the Tupinambá William Arens, The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthrophagacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 5-10, 12-14, 16-31, (CP). Arthur C. Clarke, History Lesson, Startling Stories 19 (May 1949): (CP). 1/21 No Class (Martin Luther King Day) 1/23 Brazil in the Age of Sugar 1/25 In the Time of the Flemings : Dutch Brazil, /28 Bandeiras and Bandeirantes 1/30 The Golden Age of Brazil 2/01 Discussion: Bandeirantes, Councilors, and Kings Justo Mansilla and Simón Maceta, Atrocities of the Paulistas, in Richard M. Morse, ed., The Bandeirantes: The Historical Role of the Brazilian Pathfinders (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), (CP). Gaspar da Madre de Deus, A Defense of the Paulistas, in Richard M. Morse, ed., The Bandeirantes: The Historical Role of the Brazilian Pathfinders (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), (CP). E.L. Myrup, Affinity, Fraud, and Affection: Power and Corruption in the Portuguese Colonial World (unpublished manuscript), chapter 3. (CP)

5 II. Colonial Society 2/04 Colonial Landscapes FIRST PAPER DUE 2/06 Royal Government 2/08 The Church in a Baroque World 2/11 Discussion: The Holy Office and Other Institutions Domingos Fernandes Nobre, Ana Alcoforada, Francisco Nugeira, and Pero de Moura, Confessing to the Holy Office of the Inquisition, in Kenneth Mills, William Taylor, and Sandra Lauderdale Graham, eds. Colonial Latin America: A Documentary History (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 2002), (CP). Manoel Cardoso, António de Gouveia: Adventurer and Priest, in David G. Sweet and Gary B. Nash, eds., Struggle and Survival in Colonial America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), (CP). 2/13 Women, Men, and Family 2/15 Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom 2/18 Discussion: Children of God s Fire : African Slavery in Brazil António Vieira, Children of God s Fire, in Robert Edgar Conrad, ed., Children of God s Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), (CP). R. K. Kent, Palmares: An African State in Brazil, Journal of African History 6 (1965): (CP). III. Imperial Regeneration and Crisis 2/20 Pombal and the Age of Enlightened Despotism 2/22 A Colony in the Age of Revolution 2/25 Rio de Janeiro: A Tropical Versailles 2/27 Discussion: The Braganças of Brazil Bertita Harding, Amazon Throne: The Story of the Braganzas of Brazil (Garden City and New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1943), (CP). 3/01 Review 3/04 Midterm Examination

6 IV. The Brazilian Empire 3/06 A Matter of Moderation: Dom Pedro I and the Making of an Empire 3/08 Discussion: Independence!... But for Whom? José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva. Perhaps No Nation Ever Sinned More Against Humanity Than Portugal, in Robert Edgar Conrad, ed., Children of God s Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983): (CP). Adèle Toussaint-Samson, A Parisian in Brazil, trans. Emma Toussaint (Boston: James H. Earle, 1891), 15, 26-29, 43-45, 59-61, 71, 76-89, , , (CP). Louis and Elizabeth Agassiz, A Journey in Brazil (Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1871), 82-85, , , , (CP). 3/11 3/15 Spring Break 3/18 Dom Pedro II and the Quest for National Unity 3/20 Coffee and Railroads: Entrepreneurs in the Age of Empire 3/22 Discussion: Machado de Assis s Dom Casmurro Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro, trans. John Gledson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 1-97 (BK). 3/25 Abolition and Immigration: The End of an Era 3/27 The Military and the Fall of An Empire 3/29 Goodyear, Rio Branco, and other Visionaries: The Growing Pains of Modernity 4/01 Discussion: Agregados and Opera: Culture and Society in 19th Century Brazil Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro, trans. John Gledson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), (BK). V. The Emergence of Modern Brazil 4/03 Discussion: Writing a Good History Paper Sample Course Papers (ER) 4/05 Politicos and Thieves: From the Old Republic to the Estado Novo 4/08 Discussion: Roots and Branches: The Making of Modern Brazil Graciliano Ramos, The Thief, in Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story, ed., K. David Jackson (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), (ER). Rachel G. Queiroz, Metonymy, or The Husband s Revenge, in Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story, ed., K. David Jackson (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), (ER). Affonso Henriques de Lima Barreto, The Man Who Knew Javanese, in Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story, ed., K. David Jackson (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), (ER).

7 4/10 Vargas s Political Death and Resurrection 4/12 Fifty years in Five : Kubitscheck s Capitol SECOND PAPER DUE 4/15 Document Workshop: Jânio, Jango, and the United States 4/16 (TUESDAY, 7:00 PM, CB 238) Screening of the Movie Black Orpheus VI. Modern Society and Culture 4/17 General -ly Speaking: The Making of Modern Brazil 4/19 Discussion: Contemporary Rio de Janeiro Alma Guillermoprieto, Samba, pp (BK). 4/22 Futebol, Favelas, and Food: Brazilian Society and Culture Today 4/24 Discussion: A World Turned Upside Down: Brazilian Carnaval Alma Guillermoprieto, Samba, pp (BK). 4/25 (THURSDAY EVENING, 7:00 PM, CB 238) Optional Review Session 4/26 Conclusions FINAL EXAMINATION: Monday, April 29, 8:00-10:00 AM