Brazil under Construction

"A brilliant contribution to a fascinating emergent field: the imagination of infrastructure. Sophia Beal helps restore the strangeness to those enormous public works on which everyday life depends but that seem too big for the individual consumer to take in. This is 'material culture' both with gusto and with geopolitical vision. Students and teachers across the disciplines and around the globe will be delighted and inspired by it." - Bruce Robbins, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Department of English & Comparative Literature, Columbia University, USA

"Brazil under Construction is an original and exciting reading of Brazilian literature through the lens of how notions of modernization intersect with the development of the country's urban infrastructure. Sophia Beal examines how authors have discussed transportation, electricity, sewage, Brasília, bridges, and traffic congestion to examine the ways in which intellectuals and writers have understood progress and modernity and their effects on the physical transformations of the landscape. This eloquently written work presents a lively sweep of diverse literary representations of Brazil's modernization projects from electric streetcars and street lamps to the new capital of Brasília; the majestic bridge spanning the harbor of Rio de Janeiro; and the chaos, disorder, and traffic jams that symbolize the industrial powerhouse of São Paulo." - James N. Green, Professor of Brazilian History and Culture, Brown University, USA