Arab Brazil : Fictions of Ternary Orientalism

Until recently, Arab-Brazilian relations have been largely invisible to area studies and Comparative Literature scholarship. Yet Arabs have left a permanent imprint on Brazil: from the legacy of Muslim Iberia, transmitted by Portuguese settlers; to waves of Arab immigrants since the late nineteenth century; to the prominence today of Brazilians of Arab descent in politics, the economy, literature, and culture. The first book of its kind, Arab Brazil argues that representations of Arab and Muslim immigrants in Brazilian literature and popular culture reveal anxieties and contradictions in the country''s ideologies of national identity.

Arab-Brazilian relations have been largely invisible to area studies and Comparative Literature scholarship. Arab Brazil is the first book of its kind to highlight the representation of Arab and Muslim immigrants in Brazilian literature and popular culture since the early twentieth century, revealing anxieties and contradictions in the country''s ideologies of national identity. Author Waïl S. Hassan analyzes these representations in a century of Brazilian novels, short stories, and telenovelas. He shows how the Arab East works paradoxically as a site of otherness (different language, culture, and religion) and solidarity (cultural, historical, demographic, and geopolitical ties). Hassan explores the differences between colonial Orientalism''s binary structure of Self/Other, East/West, and colonizer/colonized, on the one hand; and on the other hand Brazilian Orientalism''s ternary structure, which defines the country''s identity in relation to both North and East.