Aesthetics of Urban Poverty in Literature, Film, and Music

Spaces of urban poverty have long held an ambivalent place within cultural imaginaries, as sites of various stereotypes and signified differences, but also as places of notable cultural production and social contestation. We will consider how urban poverty in Brazil, Lusophone Africa, and Portugal has been represented and commodified (trans)nationally, and how the voices from these locales challenge and pose a series of questions pertaining to capital, imperialisms, nationhood, globalization, and history. In doing so, we will also confront the complex relationships between race, gender, class, family, culture, and social violence, while spanning historical periods, literary and cinematic movements, and musical genres. (PGSE 0215 or equivalent) 3hrs. lect./disc.