Samba, Favela, Amazonia: Brazil Beyond the Postcards 3305-SFA-ZW-11

The course “Samba, Favela, Amazonia: Brazil Beyond the Postcards” is a discussion-based seminar devoted to selected issues in Brazilian culture and society. Its structure is based on the three key terms included in the course title, which organize the successive thematic blocks.
The first block focuses on the construction of Brazilian national identity, with particular emphasis on race, the legacy of slavery, and the myth of racial democracy. Selected excerpts from classic and contemporary texts on social relations, racism, and ideas of Brazilianness will be discussed.
The second block is devoted to the favela, urban life, and exclusion. The point of departure will be texts portraying experiences of poverty, hunger, violence, life on the peripheries, and mechanisms of social marginalization. Particular attention will be paid to the differences between testimony, reportage, literary fiction, and comics, as well as to the question of the ethics of representing poverty and violence.
The third block focuses on samba, carnival, and Afro-Brazilian religiosity. These issues will be discussed in the context of the history of popular culture, corporeality, ritual, religious syncretism, national politics, and social hierarchies revealed and concealed by the carnival spectacle.
The fourth block concerns Amazonia as a space of conflict, memory, exploitation, and imagination. The texts discussed will make it possible to present Amazonia as a territory of ecological, economic, and political disputes, as well as an area represented in reportage, essay writing, literature, and tourist-spiritual discourse.
Classes will be conducted as discussions based on assigned readings and supplementary materials. Students will analyze various ways of narrating Brazil: from diary writing and testimony, through the novel and reportage, to anthropological essays, publicistic writing, and comics. The course introduces the basic contexts necessary for further study of Brazilian culture within the Portuguese and Brazilian studies specialization.
Disclaimer: Some content presented as part of the course may include material that sensitive participants may find difficult to engage with, such as violence, vulgar language, or explicit erotic content. Please take this into account when deciding whether to enroll in the course.
With regard to the use of AI tools in the learning process, the general guidelines of URK apply: https://dokumenty.uw.edu.pl/dziennik/DURK/Lists/Dziennik/Attachments/134/DURK.2023.98.UURK.98.pdf

Course coordinators

Aleksandra Pajek

Type of course

elective courses

Mode

Classroom

Prerequisites (description)

The course introduces first-year students to selected social and cultural issues in Brazil through a critical analysis of its most recognizable symbols: samba, the favela, and Amazonia. These categories are treated not as fixed signs of exotic “Brazilianness,” but as starting points for discussing race, class, religiosity, violence, social inequalities, colonial legacies, ecology, and ways of representing Brazil in literature, reportage, comics, and public discourse. The course is based on the assumption that studying Brazil requires moving beyond tourist-oriented and stereotypical images, while taking into account the polyphony of Brazilian experience. Particular attention will be paid to texts that present Brazil from the perspective of the excluded, inhabitants of the peripheries, witnesses of violence, reporters, cultural scholars, and authors addressing Amazonia as a space of conflict, memory, and imagination. The seminar requires active participation in discussion, systematic reading of the assigned texts, and readiness to analyze various forms of expression: literary, journalistic, anthropological, publicistic, and visual. The course is intended to prepare participants for critical reflection on Brazilian culture, for recognizing simplifications and stereotypes, and for formulating their own interpretations of Brazil’s social and cultural phenomena.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge: the graduate knows and understands
K_W07 – the historical context of selected literary, cultural and social processes in the Brazilian Portuguese-speaking area, especially those related to the formation of national identity, the legacy of colonialism and slavery, race relations, urbanization, popular culture, and representations of Amazonia.
K_W11 – recent history and selected phenomena of contemporary socio-political and cultural life in Brazil, especially those concerning racism, social inequality, violence, urban exclusion, Afro-Brazilian religiosity, samba, carnival, ecological and economic conflicts in Amazonia, as well as their connections with broader global issues such as colonialism, capitalism, tourism, ecology, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the representation of marginalized groups.
Skills: the graduate is able to
K_U01 – search for, analyze, evaluate, select and use information concerning Brazilian culture and society, drawing on various sources and methods, including literary texts, reportage, journalistic writing, anthropological texts, testimonies, visual materials and comics, in order to interpret complex issues related to race, social class, violence, religiosity, popular culture and the environment.
K_U04 – use basic theoretical approaches, concepts and terms relevant to the study of Brazilian culture, including such categories as national identity, race, racism, racial democracy, slavery, marginalization, favela, social exclusion, testimony, representation, religious syncretism, popular culture, carnival, center and periphery, exoticization, and environmental exploitation.
K_U06 – recognize and define the connections between Brazilian cultural texts, especially literary, reportorial, essayistic and comic-book texts, and their historical-cultural, social and political contexts, as well as analyze their social and cultural impact, particularly with regard to representations of poverty, violence, race, corporeality, religiosity, Amazonia and Brazilianness.
K_U07 – argue in a substantive manner, formulate and justify one’s own position in discussions of selected issues in Brazilian culture and society, and draw conclusions in relation to the positions of scholars, writers, reporters, anthropologists and other authors analyzing Brazil, with particular emphasis on the ethics of representing social inequality, violence, religiosity, carnival and Amazonia.
Social competences: the graduate is ready to
K_K01 – critically assess their own knowledge and sources of information concerning Brazil, especially stereotypical, exoticizing and “postcard-like” images of samba, favela, carnival and Amazonia, as well as reflect on the ways knowledge about non-European societies and cultures is produced.
K_K02 – recognize the importance of knowledge, especially scholarly and critical knowledge, in independently addressing cognitive problems concerning Brazilian culture, and seek expert opinions when facing difficulties in interpreting the social, historical, religious, ecological and political phenomena discussed in class.
K_K04 – independently undertake and co-organize activities aimed at the common good, taking into account accepted social commitments, responsibility for the language of description, and respect for cultural, ethnic, racial, religious and class differences, particularly in the context of discussions of marginalized groups, violence, poverty, Indigenous peoples, and socio-environmental conflicts in Brazil.

Assessment criteria

Assessment methods
Active participation in class and preparation for discussion — 50% of the final grade
The following will be assessed: attendance, familiarity with the assigned excerpts of readings and materials, participation in discussion, formulation of interpretive questions, references to the texts and materials discussed in class, use of basic concepts introduced during the course, and responses to other participants’ contributions.
Two unexcused absences are allowed during the semester. Each additional unexcused absence should be made up in the form of an oral presentation on an assigned topic or will result in the final grade being lowered by half a grade.
Being more than 15 minutes late will be treated as an absence, unless it is occasional and has been agreed upon with the instructor.
Oral introduction to a reading or problem — 50% of the final grade
Each student will prepare one oral presentation of approximately 15 minutes on a selected reading, concept, phenomenon or cultural material discussed in class. The presentation should include a presentation of the problem, reference to the reading or source material, situating the issue in the social, historical or cultural context of Brazil, and 2–3 questions for group discussion.
Assessment criteria
The final grade takes into account:
familiarity with the readings and materials discussed in class;
systematic preparation for classes;
knowledge of selected concepts and contexts related to race, social inequality, favelas, popular culture, Afro-Brazilian religiosity, carnival and Amazonia;
active and substantive participation in discussion;
ability to use basic concepts applied in the analysis of the texts and materials discussed in class;
ability to critically analyze literary, reportorial, anthropological, journalistic and comic-book texts;
ability to connect the texts and materials discussed in class with the social, historical and cultural context of Brazil;
ability to critically reflect on ways of representing Brazil, including stereotypical, exoticizing and “postcard-like” images of Brazilianness;
clarity, structure and problem-oriented character of the oral presentation;
ability to formulate interpretive questions and initiate discussion;
respect for differing viewpoints and the principles of academic discussion.

Bibliography

Brazylia jako mocarstwo wschodzące, red. Marcin Florian Gawrycki. Warszawa: Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego, 2013.
Brum, Eliane. Kolekcjoner porzuconych dusz. Reportaże z Brazylii. Przeł. Gabriel Borowski. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2020.
Chunderbalsingh, Renata. „Democracia racial a samba w Brazylii”. Kwartalnik Młodych Muzykologów UJ, nr 5, 2009, s. 14–20.
DaMatta, Roberto. „Karnawał równości i karnawał hierarchii”. Przeł. Marta Kolankiewicz. W: Antropologia widowisk. Zagadnienia i wybór tekstów, red. Agnieszka Chałupnik, Wojciech Dudzik, Małgorzata Kanabrodzka, Leszek Kolankiewicz. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, wyd. II (poprawione i rozszerzone) 2010, s. 438–448.
Diniz, André. Favela w kadrze. Zdjęcia Maurício Hora. Przeł. Jakub Jankowski, współpraca Marek Cichy. Warszawa: Mandioca, 2017.
Domosławski, Artur. Śmierć w Amazonii. Nowe eldorado i jego ofiary. Warszawa: Wielka Litera, 2013.
Domosławski, Artur. Wykluczeni. Warszawa: Wielka Litera, 2016.
Freyre, Gilberto. Panowie i niewolnicy. Przeł. Helena Czajka. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1985.
Jesus, Carolina Maria de. Życie na śmietniku. Przeł. Helena Czajka. Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1963.
Kolankiewicz, Leszek. Samba z bogami. Opowieść antropologiczna. Wyd. 3 zmienione i uzupełnione. Wrocław: Instytut im. Jerzego Grotowskiego, 2016.
Lins, Paulo. Miasto Boga. Przeł. Jacek Jaroszewicz. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 2006.
Pluta, Aleksandra. „Rasizm w Brazylii”. Kultura Liberalna, nr 265, 6 lutego 2014.
Siewierski, Henryk. Raj nie do utracenia. Amazońskie silva rerum. Kraków: Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych Universitas, 2006.
Siuda-Ambroziak, Renata. „Brazylia religią muzykalna”. Znak, nr 726, listopad 2015.
Varella, Drauzio. Ostatni krąg. Najniebezpieczniejsze więzienie Brazylii. Przeł. Michał Lipszyc. Wołowiec: Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2014.
Note: selected works will be discussed in excerpts indicated by the lecturer.