Brazilian American Literature and US Brazilian Literature: A Histography

A lecture by Professor Luciano Tosta

Abstract:
Brazilian writing in and about the United States dates at least back to the 19th century, yet existing studies focus mostly on those published from the 1980s on. This is so because the rise in emigration from Brazil to the United States in that decade led to a profusion of literary works about the Brazilian immigrant experience published in Portuguese and in Brazil. A decade later, Brazilian American authors started to identify themselves as such and published their works in English or Portuguese in the United States.

This presentation will provide a brief historiography of these two sets of texts, namely Brazilian-American and U.S. Brazilian literatures, and explore the similarities and differences between them.

Short Biography:
Luciano Tosta is associate professor of Brazilian literature and culture at the University of Kansas. He is the author of "Confluence Narrative: Ethnicity, History, and Nation-Making in the Americas" (2016), and co-editor of "Brazil" (2015) and "Luso-American Literature: Writings by Portuguese Speaking Authors in North America "(2011).

His essays on Brazilian literature, film and music have appeared in academic journals and as book chapters in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Europe. He is currently finishing a book manuscript tentatively entitled "Brazilian American Literature and U.S. Brazilian Literature: Transamerican Politics, Postcolonial Readings."