Face-à-Face
Brazil-France Liaisons Exposed
Art • Theory • Politics
The love affair between Brazil and France is as long-standing as it is promptly recognizable by both parties; it appears in the continually reiterated love the French profess for the Brazilian all natural "je ne sais quoi" and in the undeniable admiration Brazilians devote to all things sophisticated "à francesa". This relationship covers hundreds of years and has been regularly renewed through explorations – physical and intellectual – of each other's nations, complementary ideological engagements and ever-transforming cultural movements.
By revisiting familiar topics and exploring new fields of inquiry, this volume seeks contributions that analyze crucial moments in the exchange between Brazil and France in order to propose new readings of the cultural production and social impact that travels and dialogues between the countries have provoked. Although the “influence” of French savoir-vivre and artistic and scholarly fads on Brazilian socio-cultural formation might seem most prominent, we also encourage proposals that will shed new light on the impact that the exotic appeal of Brazil's nature and culture have had in and on France. Innovative approaches that draw on feminist, queer, de-colonial, masculinity and cultural studies are particularly welcome.
Topics and periods may include:
Early Modern French Expeditions to Brazil; Villegagnon's Mission in Brazil; Thevet's and Lery's Travels to Brazil; Montaigne's Philosophy and the Concept of Cannibalism/Anthropophagy; Cartographies of Brazil by the French; Native Brazilians and Rousseau's Concept of the Noble Savage; Les Lumières in Brazilian Arcadismo; The French Art Mission in Brazil; Historiology and the Nation (Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Jules Michelet, Ferdinand Denis); The Romantic Novel and Poetry (Alfred de Vigny, Alphonse de Lamartine, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo); French Trends in the Brazilian Fin de Siècle (Realism, Naturalism, Parnassianism, Symbolism); The Brazilian Belle Époque; Surrealism, Dadaism, and the Brazilian Modernism; Carnaval and Mardi Gras; The 1934 French Mission (Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roger Bastide, Paul Arbousse Bastide, Paul Hugon) and the University of São Paulo's Social Sciences; The Outcome of French Feminism in Brazil; Brazilian Scholars at the Sorbonne; Sartre and de Beauvoir's visit to Brazil; Cinema Novo and Les Cahiers du Cinéma; Brazilian Cinema at Cannes; Performance and Art – Year of Brazil in France (2008) and Year of France in Brazil (2009); Queer Immigration – Brazilian Transvestites in Paris; Studies on Globalization and Alter-globalization (Alter-mundialization/altermondialisme); Edgard Morin's complexity concept for Brazilian educators.
Please send a 500-word abstract in English to Regina Félix (felixr@uncw.edu) by 15 June, 2010. A 20-page paper will be due on 1 December, 2010 for those whose abstracts are accepted. Please note that abstract acceptance does not imply automatic agreement to publish the submitted article.