In Defense of Honor: Sexual Morality, Modernity, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Brazil (review)

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 289 sentatives, accoiding to Vich, found in journalism and publications such as the BoletÃ-n a means of challenging the cultural status quo and opening new spaces of intellectual exchange and cultural legitimization. Thus, Vich aiguës convincingly that while the Bohtin offered its local readership access to the woiks of nationally and internationally known intellectuals who shaied the aesthetic and ideological vision of the publication's editorial boaid, it also functioned as a kind of anthology that promoted the work of many regional writers. This was facilitated by the BoletÃ-n s tole in a network of exchange of printed material linking it to cencets of vanguaidist activism thioughouc and beyond the continent. A "space of coexistence" and dialogue also informed the publications adherence to two seemingly disparate intellectual and aesrhetic currrents. Vich identifies the Bohtin as one of the most important indigenista publications of the time, second only to Maiiategui's^wawto. Committed to an agenda of social and political change tooted in the vindication of Peius indigenous present and past, it was linked to the ideological development of political vanguaidism in Peiu in the '20s. But as the authoi's penetrating examination of its poetic and nanative contriburions suggesrs, the BoletÃ-n was just as deeply immersed in the rhetoric and practices of the aesthetic avant-garde. For many of rhe Bohtin s collaboratots, its indigenismo de vanguardia or indigenismo vanguardista (a teim Vich borrows from Mariátegui) signified rupture and renovation not only as means of articulating change, but at some level effecting it. As Vich shows, it was a "thoroughly original model of transculturation " reflecting the aesthetic stt ategies of a vanguardisr projecr filtered through a very particular local context; a kind of literary blueprint for a more inclusive, if Utopian, social and political model. Vich's book is a fundamental contiibution to the cuiient scholaiship on the Bohtin, adding both bieadth and depth to a ciitical coipus that, for the most part, until now has remained limited in scope. In addition to her rhorough review of rhe contents and the context of the projecr, the author engages aspects of the publication that are often overlooked. One chapter analyzes several of the pedagogical projects found in the Bohtin, which included calls for rural educational reforms anchored in the indigenous traditions of the sierra, as well as formal proposals for rhe "Andeanization" of the Spanish language. Another situates the Peralras' publication within a much broader discussion of the "magazine" as it examines the critical role played by the genie in creating new spheres of cultural, and, ultimately, political negotiation throughout Latin Ameiica in the eaily paît of the 20th century. Also relevant, given the relative difficulty of obtaining the material , is the authoi's reproduction of many of the texts she cites, as well as an appendix listing the Bohtin's contributors, other publications with which the BoletÃ-n maintained ties, and information on each of the books it reviewed. Ultimately, what emerges from Vich's study is a sharp picture of one of those "original models of transculturation" (bonowing from both Vich and Osorio) dotting rhe landscape of Latin American vanguardism in the '20s as it grappled with the challenge of defining a unique cultural and social identity in the post-colonial context. Shirley Cardozo College of St. Benedict/St. John's University In Defense of Honor: Sexual Morality, Modernity, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Brazil Duke University Press, 2000 By Sueann Caulfield The title of this study is somewhat misleading . Lightly unpacked, it might read: "In Legal Defense of Sexual Honor: Changes in the Social and Juridical Explanation of Premarital Relations Between Young Adults in Rio de Janeiro in the Peiiod Between the World Wars and the Role of Those Changes in the Social and Socio-Symbolic Transition of Brazil from Empiie Through Republic to New State." Moreover, footnotes would have to be added to iegister that, especially in the Center-Sourh of Brazil, the aforementioned transition involved massive economic, demogiaphic, and political changes and also that the coie coipus 290 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies foi this study is constituted by data deiived from...