In the Darkness of the Cinema - (Pitt Latin American) by Lena Oak Suk (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Gender and sexual morality, and their intersections with race and class, were central to the formation of urban Brazil in the twentieth century. In the Darkness of the Cinema takes a wide-ranging and innovative approach to gender and moviegoing culture in Brazilian society. By focusing on the flirtations and romances of the movie theater, as well as the intrigue and moral panic that they caused, Suk creates a rich portrait of spectatorship. Where women went to the movies, who they met, and what they did in the darkness were key questions that brewed among overlapping but disparate circles, from film intellectuals and filmmakers to legislators and public health officials, as well as the moviegoers themselves. Amassing sources located traditionally within culture as well as outside of it, such as film magazines, interviews, comics, literature, and songs, Suk shows that movie theaters and moviegoers made an indelible mark on the urban landscape of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

Review Quotes

Suk's In the Darkness of the Cinema excavates revealing traces of the gender, racial, and class ideologies that found expression in film and literature and shaped moviegoing habits and theater architecture in twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Suk offers an engaging account of how the movies transformed urban space and women's participation in public life in Brazil.--Rielle Navitski, University of Georgia

About the Author

Lena Oak Suk is a cultural historian of Brazil. She works in Research Development at the University of Texas at Austin and is a Research Affiliate at the Institute of Historical Studies, UT Austin. Her work on gender and popular culture has been published in the Journal of Social History and the Latin American Research Review.