2023 Fall
PORTUG 113 001 - LEC 001
Brazilian Culture Through and Across the Arts and Media
Cultures of Carnaval
Nathaniel Zlotkin Wolfson
Class #:24347
Units:4
Instruction Mode:
In-Person Instruction
Offered through
Spanish and Portuguese
Current Enrollment
Total Open Seats:
0
Enrolled: 30
Waitlisted: 0
Capacity: 30
Waitlist Max: 5
No Reserved Seats
Hours & Workload
3 hours of instructor presentation of course materials, and 9 hours of outside work hours.
Other classes by Nathaniel Zlotkin Wolfson
Course Catalog Description
Spotlight on diverse media (film, radio photography, music, etc.) and selected texts as a way into the history and culture of Brazil. May include early experiments with photography, political uses of radio to reach the masses, the birth of the nation’s film industry and the rise of popular music as they invite readings together with literature. The course allows students to watch, listen and read these materials as a way of exploring emerging social movements, counter-cultural currents and historical paradigm shifts. Students will learn about the major Brazilian cultural and literary movements while becoming familiar with ways of reading cultural materials across different media.
Class Description
Conducted in English. This course examines prose fiction, poetry, film, photography and visual art to study cultures of carnaval in Brazil. Why each year does Rio de Janeiro, as well as countless other cities and towns throughout Brazil, radically transform themselves for a collective celebration? How do artists and writers capture the joy, vitality, and bodily expressions in these celebrations? How do they represent the ways in which the body and the senses come alive? How do they articulate the feeling of post-carnaval, the return to normalcy, to the grinding of everyday life? How are ideas of sexuality and gender tested in these spaces of revelry? While we will focus on discussing and analyzing representations of carnaval itself, the course will also address broader conversations about collective euphoria, urban life, aesthetic experience and political conflict. Discussing carnaval also means learning about various kinds of music, performance, dance and design throughout the country, as well as the changing politics surrounding popular cultural and street life over the past century. This wide view –– involving literary analysis, film analysis, cultural history and more –– will allow us to treat carnaval not only as an event but as a style and human condition.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat Rules
Course is not repeatable for credit.
Requirements class fulfills
Meets Historical Studies, L&S Breadth
Meets Social & Behavioral Sciences, L&S Breadth
Reserved Seats
Current Enrollment
No Reserved Seats
Textbooks & Materials
See class syllabus or https://calstudentstore.berkeley.edu/textbooks for the most current information.
Guide to Open, Free, & Affordable Course Materials
Associated Sections
None