O livro Brazil Under Construction – Fiction and Public Works (2013), de Sophia Beal (professora associada do Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, da Universidade de Minnesota), propõe importante reflexão sobre a relação entre a cultura brasileira elaborada ao longo do século XX e as obras públicas estatais, à s quais a narrativa oficial atribuiu ideais de modernização, coesão identitária e progresso. O trabalho situa-se no campo de estudos culturais e abrange análises de textos literários, canções, peças teatrais, charges e filmes. A pesquisa é interdisciplinar – envolvendo, por exemplo, geografia, arquitetura, história e polÃtica – e inovadora, por trazer ao âmbito da crÃtica literária o debate sobre infraestrutura e proporcionar diferente chave de leitura para os textos apresentados.
The book Brazil Under Construction – Fiction and Public Works (2013), by Sophia Beal, Associate Professor of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies in the University of Minnesota, proposes an important reflection on the relation between the Brazilian culture developed throughout the 20th century and the state public works to which the official narrative has attributed ideals of modernization, cohesiveness of indentity, and progress. The work is in the field of cultural studies and comprises the analysis of literary texts, songs, plays, charges, and films. The research is multidisciplinary – referring, for instance, to geography, architecture, history, and politics - and innovative for bringing out the debate on infrastructure to the sphere of literary criticism and for presenting different readings of the texts that were approached.
