Consuming Visions: Cinema, Writing, and Modernity in Rio de Janeiro (New World Studies)

__Consuming Visions__ explores the relationship between cinema and writing in early twentieth-century Brazil, focusing on how the new and foreign medium of film was consumed by a literary society in the throes of modernization. Maite Conde places this relationship in the specific context of turn-of-the-century Rio de Janeiro, which underwent a radical transformation to a modern global city, becoming a concrete symbol of the country's broader processes of change and modernization. Analyzing an array of literary texts, from journalistic essays and popular women's novels to anarchist treatises and vaudeville plays, the author shows how the writers' encounters with the cinema were consistent with the significant changes taking place in the city. The arrival and initial development of the cinema in Brazil were part of the new urban landscape in which early Brazilian movies not only articulated the processes of the city's modernization but also enabled new urban spectators―women, immigrants, a new working class, and a recently liberated slave population―to see, believe in, and participate in its future. In the process, these early movies challenged the power of the written word and of Brazilian writers, threatening the hegemonic function of writing that had traditionally forged the contours of the nation's cultural life. An emerging market of consumers of the new cultural phenomena―popular theater, the department store, the factory, illustrated magazines―reflected changes that not only modernized literary production but also altered the very life and everyday urban experiences of the population. __Consuming Visions__ is an ambitious and engaging examination of the ways in which mass culture can become an agent of intellectual and aesthetic transformation.

Consuming Visions explores the relationship between cinema and writing in early twentieth-century Brazil, focusing on how the new and foreign medium of film was consumed by a literary society in the throes of modernization. Maite Conde places this relationship in the specific context of turn-of-the-century Rio de Janeiro, which underwent a radical transformation to a modern global city, becoming a concrete symbol of the country's broader processes of change and modernization. Analyzing an array of literary texts, from journalistic essays and popular women's novels to anarchist treatises and vaudeville plays, the author shows how the writers' encounters with the cinema were consistent with the significant changes taking place in the city.

The arrival and initial development of the cinema in Brazil were part of the new urban landscape in which early Brazilian movies not only articulated the processes of the city's modernization but also enabled new urban spectators—women, immigrants, a new working class, and a recently liberated slave population—to see, believe in, and participate in its future. In the process, these early movies challenged the power of the written word and of Brazilian writers, threatening the hegemonic function of writing that had traditionally forged the contours of the nation's cultural life. An emerging market of consumers of the new cultural phenomena—popular theater, the department store, the factory, illustrated magazines—reflected changes that not only modernized literary production but also altered the very life and everyday urban experiences of the population. Consuming Visions is an ambitious and engaging examination of the ways in which mass culture can become an agent of intellectual and aesthetic transformation.

University of Virginia Press

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Part One: Writers, Film, and the New Visual Landscape of Rio de Janeiro 1. Documenting New Urban Experiences: The Cinematic Work of the Crônica 2. Comic Visions of the New City: Writersand Film Production during the Belle Époqueof Brazilian Cinema Part Two: Writers, Film, and Alternative Visions of Rio de Janeiro 3. Envisioning a New Political Landscape: Martin Fontes’s Anarchist Flirtation with Film 4. Women, Rio’s Modernity, and Film’s Visual Pleasures: Benjamin Costallat’s Mademoiselle Cinema Conclusion: Reviving the Lettered City Appendices Notes Bibliography Filmography Index In this analysis of Brazilian cinema and literary society during the early years of the 20th century, Conde (Brazil Institute, King's College, U. of London) explores the way that film in Rio de Janeiro was received by Brazilian writers. The book's four chapters shed light on the cinematic work of the Cronica; writers and film production during the Belle Epoque of Brazilian cinema; Martin Fontes's anarchist flirtation with film; and Benjamin Costallat's Mademoiselle Cinema. The book includes b&w historical photos and illustrations. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Introduction Writers, film, and the visual landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Documenting new urban experiences: the cinematic work of the Crônica Comic visions of the new city: writers and film production during the Belle Époque Writers, film, and alternative visions of Rio de Janeiro. Envisioning a new political landscape: writers, anarchism, and film in Martins Fontes's Fantastic screenplay Rio, modernity, and film's visual pleasures: Benjamin Costallat's Mademoiselle cinema Conclusion. Reviving the lettered city: Brazilian modernism and the art of the movies.