This course explores critiques of Western theories of the avant-garde by focusing on Brazilian texts and visual materials mainly of the 20th century. We will consider how individuals involved in literary, architectural, and artistic movements especially in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1960s, associated their work with concepts of “the tropics.” In various and sometimes opposing ways, situating their practices in “the tropics” allowed them to address the relationships between avant-garde and anti-colonial movements. In the 1960s, the notion of “experimentation” in literary and art practices, so tied up with Western aesthetic theory of the avant-garde, was sometimes challenged by artists and critics. On the topic of experimentation we will read critiques of aesthetic autonomy by Hélio Oiticica and Lina Bo Bardi, as well as studies of indigenous and African cosmologies and traditions by Abdias do Nascimento, Edmilson de Almeida Pereira, and Conceição Evaristo. A second through line of this seminar considers how, in Brazil and across Latin America, technological imaginaries in literature and art have often invoked ecological destruction and capitalist extractivism. On this topic we’ll read with poets, architects and engineers. A third through line concerns alternatives to Western philosophies of rationality and the self. We’ll read texts on psychology and language theory, including those by philosopher Vicente Ferreira da Silva, psychologist Nisa de Silveira, and artist Flávio de Carvalho.



Though Brazilian texts will be emphasized, those interested in avant-garde aesthetics from other regions are very much encouraged to join. However, because of the limited availability of translations, reading proficiency of Portuguese is required.

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