[EN] Orientalism in One Country? Race, Region, and Nation in 20th-Century Brazil

This article considers the different approaches to the problem of regional inequalities within nations in Latin America, and specifically in Brazil. Beginning in the 1960s, scholars used “internal colonialism” to analyze these inequalities, but this concept fell out of fashion in the 1980s with the...

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Main Author: Barbara Weinstein
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Federal da Paraíba 2016-02-01
Series:Prim@ Facie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://150.165.250.106/index.php/primafacie/article/view/27575
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author Barbara Weinstein
author_facet Barbara Weinstein
author_sort Barbara Weinstein
collection DOAJ
description This article considers the different approaches to the problem of regional inequalities within nations in Latin America, and specifically in Brazil. Beginning in the 1960s, scholars used “internal colonialism” to analyze these inequalities, but this concept fell out of fashion in the 1980s with the post-structuralist/cultural turn. Yet dramatic regional inequalities continued to be a feature of Latin American societies. This article suggests adapting Edward Said’s concept of “orientalism” to the processes by which difference gets produced to naturalize regional inequalities, and then explores the way this “internal orientalism” emerged in the increasingly dominant region of São Paulo, especially vis à vis the “Norte” or “Nordeste.” In particular, it looks at the 1932 regionalist movement known as the Revolução Constitucionalista, in which the insurgent state government of São Paulo took up arms against the federal government, and declared its unwillingness to be subordinated to the authority of politicians from “inferior” regions. This period of intense paulista chauvinism allows us to see the way in which regional difference became racialized, and how São Paulo’s claims to modernity became associated with whiteness. At the same time, São Paulo’s location within the same nation as its regional opponents limited the degree to which it could maintain political and cultural hegemony, even as it remained Brazil’s economic “locomotiva.”
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spelling doaj.art-e9fb9db7a31f497e9dd33337a8b2caf72023-03-02T11:22:39ZengUniversidade Federal da ParaíbaPrim@ Facie1678-25932016-02-011427[EN] Orientalism in One Country? Race, Region, and Nation in 20th-Century BrazilBarbara Weinstein0NYUThis article considers the different approaches to the problem of regional inequalities within nations in Latin America, and specifically in Brazil. Beginning in the 1960s, scholars used “internal colonialism” to analyze these inequalities, but this concept fell out of fashion in the 1980s with the post-structuralist/cultural turn. Yet dramatic regional inequalities continued to be a feature of Latin American societies. This article suggests adapting Edward Said’s concept of “orientalism” to the processes by which difference gets produced to naturalize regional inequalities, and then explores the way this “internal orientalism” emerged in the increasingly dominant region of São Paulo, especially vis à vis the “Norte” or “Nordeste.” In particular, it looks at the 1932 regionalist movement known as the Revolução Constitucionalista, in which the insurgent state government of São Paulo took up arms against the federal government, and declared its unwillingness to be subordinated to the authority of politicians from “inferior” regions. This period of intense paulista chauvinism allows us to see the way in which regional difference became racialized, and how São Paulo’s claims to modernity became associated with whiteness. At the same time, São Paulo’s location within the same nation as its regional opponents limited the degree to which it could maintain political and cultural hegemony, even as it remained Brazil’s economic “locomotiva.”https://150.165.250.106/index.php/primafacie/article/view/27575OrientalismoRegionalismoConstitucionalismo.
spellingShingle Barbara Weinstein
[EN] Orientalism in One Country? Race, Region, and Nation in 20th-Century Brazil
Prim@ Facie
Orientalismo
Regionalismo
Constitucionalismo.
title [EN] Orientalism in One Country? Race, Region, and Nation in 20th-Century Brazil
title_full [EN] Orientalism in One Country? Race, Region, and Nation in 20th-Century Brazil
title_fullStr [EN] Orientalism in One Country? Race, Region, and Nation in 20th-Century Brazil
title_full_unstemmed [EN] Orientalism in One Country? Race, Region, and Nation in 20th-Century Brazil
title_short [EN] Orientalism in One Country? Race, Region, and Nation in 20th-Century Brazil
title_sort en orientalism in one country race region and nation in 20th century brazil
topic Orientalismo
Regionalismo
Constitucionalismo.
url https://150.165.250.106/index.php/primafacie/article/view/27575
work_keys_str_mv AT barbaraweinstein enorientalisminonecountryraceregionandnationin20thcenturybrazil