Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture

"Tropical Multiculturalism" provides a major study of race in Brazilian culture through the most complete critical analysis of Brazilian cinema in any language. Focusing on representations of multicultural themes involving Euro- and Afro Brazilians, other immigrants, and indigenous peoples in the rich tradition of Brazilian fictional feature film, Robert Stam puts Brazilian culture at the center of a wide-ranging analysis of race, representation, history, and film. Drawing parallels between the histories of colonialism, slavery, and immigration in Brazil and the United States, he also contends that questions of ethnic and racial representations are best viewed within the larger context of a comparative analysis of racially plural societies.

Stan examines the broad historical and cultural links that connect Brazil and the United States before considering multicultural imagery in Brazilian film as it has changes from the silent era to the present. His analysis moves through the comic "chanchadas" of the 1930s and the 1940s to the Hollywood-style films from Sco Paulo in the 1950s and the diverse phases of Cinema Novo beginning in the 1960s. He explores a wealth of subjects, including the submerged "blackness" of Carmen Miranda, the anti-racist agenda of Orson Well's never-released Brazilian film "It's All True, " the international background behind "Black Orpheus, " the career of Grande Otelo (Brazil's greatest black film star), the allegorical "cannibalistic" films like "How Tasty Was My Frenchman, " and "indigenous media" -- the attempt by Brazilian "Indians" to use camcorders and VCRs for their own cultural and political purposes. "Tropical Multiculturalism is simultaneously ahistory of Brazilian cinema from the standpoint of race, a history of Brazil itself through its cinematic representations, a comparative study of racial formations in Brazil and the United States, and a theorized analysis of racialized representations.