Abstract: Eduardo Coutinho talks about how comparative analysis of Brazilian and Latin American literature provides an antidote to traditional Eurocentrism.

Title: Comparative Literature in Brazil: Aspects and Problems
Speaker: Eduardo F. Coutinho
Distinguished Lemann Visiting Professor, UIUC

Description: Eduardo Coutinho talks about Brazilian and Latin American literature. He argues that comparative literature in Brazil and Latin America has had the effect of freeing literature from traditional European hegemony. In particular, Coutinho says that comparativism expanded the dynamics of influence. No longer was Europe the center of thought, providing unilateral influence to colonialized literature. Rather, with the development of comparativism, interactions between the literatures were perceived as bilateral. Coutinho argues there are three levels of influence on Latin American literature: 1) The relationship between Latin America and Western Europe 2) The relationship between national literature within Latin America 3) The characterization of the heterogeneity of national literature within a continental context.

Sponsor: Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Co-sponsors: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences