Reading Guide
Nicolau Sevcenko. "Peregrinations, Visions and the City: From Canudos to Brasília, the Backlands Become the City and the City Becomes the Backlands."
Infrastructure

• As always...start with the author. Who is he?
• What is the title of his essay suggesting?
• Sevcenko breaks his essay into unnumbered sections but you should read them as subsections – each having a central idea. you can use that structure to analyze the essay seeing the sections as building blocks.
• Sevcenko's essay is a linear one.... starting with a theoretical discussion he moves to a chronological exploration of the devleopment of modernity in Brazil, its fragmentation, and evolution of new forms of modernity

He begins with a series of commentaries draw from classic elements of literature – Guimarães Rosa; Euclides da Cunha, Sergio Buarque de Holanda

He is counterpoising the concept of importing cultural elements (Holanda: "Bringing from distant countries our ways of life, our institutions, our ideas...." 77) with that of building on indigenous roots. This of course raises the issue of modernity (perhaps the very idea of development) as an imposed ideology
Sevcenko counterpoises these works with the dominant vision of imported ideologies, ideas, institutions (Ramos: the liberal agenda)
these writers and Sevcenko shift their focus from the elites to common people (the popular sectors) - who/what are these popular sectors? What forms the basis of their value systems? What is the role of mystical beliefs (Schelling Introduction)

Initially land, especially in the interior, was for the taking but that changes in the 19th century. How and why?

Note the chronological/historical stages that Sevcenko uses (relate them to Schelling's stages). Identify them and explain their impact on Brazilian society.
Note Sevcenko's description of the new Brazilian elite (Ramos: liberal modernizers)

He then shifts to a specific example to elucidate this confrontation of traditions: again What traditions are at play here?
The Canudos Revolt (1893-97)

this is a pivotal event so be sure that you understand what is happening here

• who is Euclides da Cunha and what is his role in the War and then in the conflict of traditions
• what conclusions does Sevcenko derive from this case?
• The bottom of p. 84 contains an important construction in which Sevcenko balances positivism versus popular culture and then argues than the new elites rejected both. What is he talking about and why would the modernizing elites reject both?

The next section looks at one element of the popular culture, the Afro-Brazilian population

• what cultural elements linked the various elements of this community
• how did the Brazilian react to these manifestions of popular Afro-Brazilian culture?

Next section (6)
What were the changes to cosmopolitanism?

note the impact of Brazilian culture on French society (Milhaud and Cendrars) and then its circular impact on Brazilian elites in Paris for the season. what does this tell us abut the elite? about the appropriation of popular culture by the elites?

Section 7
Sao Paulo is the largest city in South America and in this section Sevcenko traces the history of the city.

• what was the source of its wealth?
• what was the British role?
• note the urban expansion of the city? based on what models?
• as the city grew so did the disparity between the elites and the poor. note the staggering infant mortality figures.
• how were the poor appeased?

Section 8
Here Sevcenko traces the path of Cendrars and discusses his role. sort it out and then relate it to the 'rediscovery' of Brazil by who?
the last sentence of this sentence needs to be understood as the key to the cultural conflicts of the 20th century. be sure you understand nationalist modernism; international processes of modernization [Ramos: westernization]

Section 9
1930 is a major turning point in Brazilian history. Why? Who is Getulio Vargas? What does he represent?

What does the University of Sao Paulo represent? what do you think of a university with such an agenda?

Section 10
Sevcenko's finally gets to Brasilia to fulfill the promise of the title of his essay.

• why was Brasilia built?
• where is it?
• how was the 'materialization of the impossible'
• how does Brasilia connect to Bossa Nova, soccer victories, Cinema Novo, Tropicalism

what ends this utopian/optimistic period? why?

Section 11
here Sevcenko looks at the post 1980s period.

• how was influence/control maintained by the elite/establishment during this period?
• what was the role of international pop culture? how did Brazilians response to this onslaught?
• Sevcenko concludes by using Ayrton Senna as a magical symbol of the search for "a world of peace, fraternity and justice." wow. how is Senna and how is her described and how does he relate to the baasic themes of the essay.

Now go back to the title. what does it mean to you know.