Brazil, Lyric, and the Americas by Charles A. Perrone (review)

The Latin Americanist, June 2010 (Papá Liborio) better known as Olivorismo, which emerged along the southwest region of San Juan de Maguana along the Dominican-Haitian frontier. Here Derby analyzes how Trujillo’s power trickled down and influenced the masses. Trujillo and his regime hoped to create the image of a modern nation through various activities and certain individuals. Derby reminds readers how the state went out of its way to display those who came to be associated with power and prestige. Christina Violeta Jones National Archives and Records Administration College Park, Maryland BRAZIL, LYRIC, AND THE AMERICAS. By Charles A. Perrone. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2010, pp. 251, $69.95. Is Brazil a poetic island? That seems to be the big question that motivates the book reviewed here. And if the answer seems to be yes, at least if we consider, as the author does, that Brazil is “Latin America’s largest and yet only Portuguese-speaking nation” (xiii), then one must also ask what is the position of Brazilian poetry in relation to the poetry of other nations in the same hemisphere. Better yet, one needs to ponder what are the poetic challenges faced by its poets due to that isolation and the strategies used by them in order to deal with issues such as linguistic differences, the traditional perception of place or even nation, and the use of nontraditional vehicles of dissemination, as well as the possibilities of mass-media and electronic technologies when considering a poetry produced in a country that does not share the “hegemonic cultural behaviors of North America and the linguistically unified spheres of Spanish America” (12). Confronted with these dilemmas and the demands of an increasingly globalized world, Brazilian lyric production engages in highly experimental and innovative ways of artistic creation, as this book demonstrates, in which America often is a metaphor for experimentation, invention, and freedom. Although that has been the case historically, such reality has never been more evident and necessary than now when “present-day poets in nations such as Brazil carry on textual, practical, and diplomatic conversations with foreign interlocutors as never before, most notably within the hemisphere” (5). It is not surprising, then, that this highly original volume focuses on how Brazilian poetry and lyrics establish a dialogue with their counterparts throughout the continent, while discussing poetry, film, music , and other cultural articulations of the English- and Spanish-speaking societies. Divided in seven chapters, one of which is a conclusion, and preceded by a very brief introduction, the volume covers a wide range of aspects related to poetry, culture, mass media and new technologies. The first chapter , a de facto introduction, is an excellent example of the rigorous work 136 Book Reviews of the volume, and it traces the uses of the terms America, Latin America, isolation, globalization, and even Brazil, using Deleuze’s and Guattari’s concept of deterritorialization as a guide. The second and the third chapters deal with the relationship between Brazilian poetry and the culture, poetry, and language of the Unites States. The chapters acknowledge and leave somehow unresolved Brazilian intellectuals’ and artists’ use of English , which depending on one’s position can be seen as “an indication of Anglo-American imperialism and cultural penetration, as a manifestation of mental colonization, as an act of negotiation for symbolic capital and prestige, as a demonstration of erudition or fashion consciousness” (35), amongst many other possibilities, including international pragmatism, or artistic admiration as well. Chapter four centers on the ways America (the Americas) has been interpreted and recreated by Brazilian poets, primarily the epic poems of Sousândrade (O Guesa), Ronald de Carvalho (Toda a América), and Marcus Accioly (Latinoamérica). These epic works carry the voice of the peoples of the continent, while offering a continental spirit, and “provide a historical breadth from the pre-Columbian era to the postmodern days” (103) in an attempt to summarize centuries of struggles, domination, and conquest. Chapter 5 (“Banda Hispânica”), as its title reveals, centers solely on the relationship, not always happy, between Brazil and Spanish America, particularly in the last two decades. As Perrone points out, Brazil has been appreciated and known in Spanish...