The final examination will begin promptly at 8:00am on Monday, May
20, in FSK 0116 (where we normally meet). The exam will last two hours.
Subject to demand, a review session can be scheduled for Friday, May 17.
The exam will be divided into two parts:
There will be two bonus IDs, each worth 2.5% extra credit.
1) In his famous essay Os Sertões [Rebellion in the Backlands], Euclides da Cunha portrayed the Brazilian interior and its inhabitants as backwards and barbarous. For da Cunha, the coastal regions held the future of a civilized and orderly nation. By 1960, President Juscelino Kubitschek saw the inverse: the Planalto Central was a land of limitless possibilities, where a new ultra-modern capital would propel Brazilian society, especially its old coastal inhabitants, towards the future. What factors (political, cultural, economic) reshaped the binaries of coast-backlands and civilization-barbarism from the War of Canudos to the inauguration of Brasília?
2) In one of his first speeches as the Chief Executive, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso declared that the Vargas Era had ended. Time will tell whether Cardoso was actually correct. Trace the evolution of the "Vargas era" from the Revolution of 1930 through the early 1980s.
3) The cultural movement known as modernismo has played a central role in shaping many of the most enduring notions of Brazilian culture. Modernism has also played a significant role in shaping notions of political power, especially during periods of authoritarian rule. Looking at the Estado Novo and the post-1964 military regime, locate modernism as a cultural and political movement(s) that engages authoritarianism.
4) The ideology of racial democracy is one of the most peculiar aspects of post-abolition Brazilian society. On the one hand, the ideology seeks to correct a history of racialized slavery through a celebration of national inclusion, regardless of race. On the other hand, the ideology obscures enduring patterns of social stratification, especially around race. Where did the ideology of racial democracy originate and how did it come to be a national myth? Your answer should focus on the middle-third of the twentieth-century.
5) What has democracy meant in republican Brazil? As you answer, compare and contrast two key historical moments/events in which democratic ideals and practices have been tested.
6) For over two centuries, Brazilians have made conscious efforts to "perform" Brazilianess to foreign audiences. Love of liberty, modernism, tropical exoticism, racial tolerance, pan-Americanism, Luso-Catholicism, and Africanism are some of the most important themes woven into the presentation of brasilidade to foreigners. Choose one of these images and demonstrate how it relates to the politics of brasilidade played out at the domestic level.
7) Trace the contours of economic development in Brazil in the twentieth century.
Final course grades should be available through Testudo on or about May 23.
Email: Professor
Williams
Course Website