Democracy and Contemporary Brazilian Literature. A lecture by Leila Lehnen

Events

October 23, 2019 at 5pm | LARTS 374, UMass Dartmouth

The Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture / Tagus Press and the Department of Portuguese proudly present:

Democracy and Contemporary Brazilian Literature, a lecture by Leila Lehnen

Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s idea of how the political intervenes in the cultural realm, this presentation proposes that Roy David Frankel’s text Sessão (2017) articulates an aesthetics of contestation and democratic engagement. The book’s title alludes to session 091 of the Chamber of Deputies, that was held on April 17, 2016, and that voted in favor of impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. In the book Frankel transcribes entire speeches or selections from addresses that were given in the Chamber of Deputies. Frankel's manipulations of these discourses transform them into what might be considered political "poems."

Leila Lehnen is Associate professor and Chair in the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at Brown University. Her book Citizenship and Crisis in Contemporary Brazilian Literature (2013) examines the portrayal and critique of differentiated citizenship (Holston 2008) in contemporary Brazilian literature. She has published numerous articles on citizenship, social justice, democracy, and human rights in Brazilian and Spanish-American literature and cultural production.

When: 5pm, Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Where: LARTS 374 (Parking Lot 1)

For additional information, please contact Prof. Dario Borim, dborim@umassd.edu or Prof. Victor Mendes vmendes@umassd.edu.