Respond to all questions below with 200-250 word answers. You can consult the texts assigned in this course as well as lectures. Use your own words only except if you have been asked to cite a text. Respond in full sentences and well-constructed prose (make sure you re-read your answers).
Each answer will be graded out of 20 points (15 points for clarity and relevance of ideas; 5 points for prose style (spelling and grammar)).
Read each question carefully several times.
1. Compare and contrast two films: Marcel Camus’s Black Orpheus and Carlos Diegues’s Orpheu. How do these films present different approaches to Brazilian carnival? By comparing them, what do we learn about Brazilian carnival?
2. Rewatch two videos: First,”Trajectory of Frevo” Links to an external site.and then Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca’s video “Faz que vai” (located in Week 2 of “Files”). How does the first video help you to understand the second one? Place the two videos in dialogue with one another, remembering that the focus of our discussion of “Faz que vai” was its representations of gender and sexual freedom.
3. The quilombo is usually defined as a politically autonomous place inhabited my freed and fugitive slaves as well as indigenous people during the time of colonization. But the idea of quilombos, in a broader and more abstract sense, resonated in Brazil even after slavery was abolished. What purpose did the idea of the quilombo serve Brazilian society even after slavery was abolished? Why do you think samba schools have frequently mentioned quilombos (such as the Quilombo dos Palmares) in the lyrics of their sambas (note: think about this generally, no need to look into which samba school did this)?
4. In class we discussed the various ways in which Crooked Plow takes up the theme of communication. How does the novel allow us to think about forms of communication that are not primarily verbal (i.e. do not use the voice)? In what ways does this feature of the novel relate to its broader themes? Identify a moment(s) in the text that allows you to answer the question.
