| Popis: |
In this dissertation, I propose the terminology “domestic placemaking” to serve as an approach to the analysis of representations of the creation of home in literary and cultural products of the Brazilian diaspora to the United States. I use the novel Samba Dreamers (2006) by Kathleen de Azevedo, the documentary Grandma Has a Video Camera (2007) by Tania Cypriano, and the play Os Silva na America (2009) by Edel Holz as primary sources of analysis. I first argue for the inclusion of Brazilian migrants within the Latinx label, since their histories, lived experiences, and realities are akin to those of other Latin American migrant. Then, I discuss two strategies depicted in my objects of study to depict the process of transforming a home into a house: home ownership and cultural consumption. When examining home ownership, I discuss the differences between owning and renting and its impact on achieving domestic placemaking, and how anxieties regarding class and citizenship come to play when ownership is considered. In my discussion of cultural consumption, I analyze how consumer habits are used to maintain a connection to characters’ home countries, and how such habits serve to mark characters’ identities and positionalities in terms of race, gender, class, and national inclusion. |
