Cannibal democracy : race and representation in the literature of the Americas / Zita Nunes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nunes, Zita.

Series:

Critical American studies series.

Critical American studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

Brazilian literature--History and criticism.

Brazilian literature.

Caribbean literature--History and criticism.

Caribbean literature.

Metaphor.

Cannibalism in literature.

Race relations in literature.

Democracy in literature.

United States--Race relations--Historiography.

United States.

Brazil--Race relations--Historiography.

Brazil.

Caribbean Area--Race relations--Historiography.

Caribbean Area.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Zita Nunes argues that the prevailing narratives of identity formation throughout the Americas share a dependence on metaphors of incorporation and, often, of cannibalism. From the position of the incorporating body, the construction of a national and racial identity through a process of assimilation presupposes a remainder, a residue. Nunes addresses works by writers and artists who explore what is left behind in the formation of national identities and speak to the limits of the contemporary discourse of democracy. Cannibal Democracy tracks its central metaphor's circulation through the work

Contents:

United by anthropophagism

Bringing in the dead : nostalgia and the refusal of loss in Gilberto Freyre's Casa Grande e Senzala

The foreigner and the remainder

The new Negro and the turn to South America

The remainder is a reminder : cannibalizing the remains of the past.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-200) and index.

ISBN:

0-8166-5652-5

OCLC:

476210599