The life and works of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) have been well documented. However, a comprehensive study concerning any of his nine works for piano and orchestra has not been undertaken. Among this prolific output, the Mômoprecóce, fantasie pour piano et orchestra, stands as a faithful representation of the composer's skillful orchestration, descriptive piano writing through the observation of a childhood universe, and his multi-faceted approach to nationalism. The fantasy is a through-composed arrangement of a previous solo piano suite by Villa-Lobos entitled, Carnaval das crianças brasileiras (Brazilian Children's Carnival, 1919). This research aims to investigate the historic, stylistic, and interpretative aspects of Mômoprecóce, while discussing the composer's unique usage of the piano through his innovative compositional techniques and comparison of the fantasy with his original solo piano suite. Current literature in English, Portuguese and French is thoroughly examined, discussed, evaluated, and cited. In addition I provide a formal analysis, an interpretative guide, and a sociological perspective into Brazilian carnival, as specifically applied to the performance of Mômoprecóce.

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As Haegeman and Zanuttini (1996:117) discuss, when two negative elements are present in a specific syntactic domain, two possible situations may arise: "(i) the two negative elements may cancel each other out, or (ii) the two elements may contribute, together, one single instance of negation". The former 'negation cancellation' is referred to as Double Negation and can be exemplified in the standard English sentence 'I didn't say nothing', meaning 'I said something'. In many languages, traditionally known as Negative Concord languages, we can find the second scenario, where two or more negative elements can co-occur in the same sentence without applying the 'negation cancellation' rule. The most common example of the Negative Concord phenomenon consists of a sentential negation (NEG) co-occurring with a negative word. This is shown in Spanish examples such as "Juan no llamó a nadie" (literally: 'Juan didn't call nobody') meaning 'John didn't call anybody'. Another less common type of exception occurs when two sentential negations (NEG+NEG) are phonologically realized in the same sentence. This phenomenon is traditionally known as Discontinuous Negation. The following example is from Bukusu (Bell, 2004): Peter SEalaba akula sitabu TA 'Peter will NOT be buying a book (NOT)'. The language I examined in this dissertation, Vernacular Brazilian Portuguese, can combine both types of Negative Concord cases in the same sentence, as we see in the example "Não ligou ninguém não (literally: 'Nobody didn't call not') meaning 'Nobody called'". Another unique characteristic of this variety that distinguishes it from the rest of the Romance languages is the optional deletion of the preverbal NEG. Though the post- verbal negative words require a preverbal negation, working as their licensor, the use of the post-sentential NEG makes the example "Ligou ningum não 'Nobody called'" grammatically correct. The main purpose of my dissertation is to present a different approach to what has been traditionally seen as the Negative Concord and Discontinuous Negation. These two complex negation phenomena stem from the same syntactic source, as they are two versions of the same syntactic derivation. Based on data from Vernacular Brazilian Portuguese, I demonstrate that there is no "concord" or "discontinuity" relationship between the negative elements in "Não ligou ninguém não", since there is only one negative item in the sentence: the pre-verbal NEG não. / text

This essay considers the relationship between the creative and philosophical writings of Graça Aranha, in part as response to the critical tendency to exclude the majority of his works when analyzing his oeuvre. Aranha’s major work of philosophy, The Aesthetic of Life, proclaims that aesthetic experience is the “basis of perfection”: the solution the alienation initiated by the duality of consciousness. Yet, the aestheticism of his philosophical treatise is ruthlessly tested through the dramatic embodiment found in his three works of fiction: Canaan (novel), Malazarte (play), The Marvelous Journey (novel). Aranha’s interest in philosophical dialectic is manifested most effectively in the drama of ideas which runs through his fiction. Consequently, Aranha’s works should be evaluated and explicated with attention to the ways in which they comment on each other. In particular, the fictional works suggest a negative aspect to Aranha’s aesthetic concept of the marvelous. The three creative works employ and anticipate ideas found in Psychoanalytic theory, Marxist theory, and Existentialism in order to illustrate that the marvelous experience is a kind of death of the subject. Additionally, this essay contributes to the critical dialogue over Aranha’s place in or outside of Brazilian modernism. The representation of Brazilian dance and ritual found in the two novels are explored as a noteworthy modernist approach to the questions of cultural and aesthetic decadence that influenced the modernist period in both Europe and Brazil. / text

Jezebels, Mammies, and Matriarchs… These labels signify racialized and gendered social constructions that transnationally pervade the lives of black women. By contextualizing black women’s artwork as visual responses to social subjugation and objectification, one can discern the (literal) materialization of black feminist epistemology through artistic production and the aesthetic concerns that drive expressive work. This thesis therefore analyzes black Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino’s work as a visual form of resistance to three major “controlling images” of black women in Brazil as sexually promiscuous, domestic laborers, and unfit mothers. Her work represents not only the Brazilian black woman’s experience; it broadens and deepens the conversation on black women’s art in Africa and its diasporas, where similar stereotypes exist. Several of Paulino’s personal statements and artworks address subjects that parallel those made by black women artists--María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Lorna Simpson, Zanele Muholi, and Wangechi Mutu, to name a few--whose artwork is also considered in this paper. Articulated to an international community of black women artists, Paulino’s artwork contributes to the development of a space in art history for the representation of black Brazilian women that enriches understandings of other established areas, be they social, artistic, medical, sexual, cultural, political or economical. / text

Thesis (Ph. D. in History)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2006. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Columbia University. / Bibliography: p. 225-234.

Thesis--Columbia University. / Bibliography: p. 225-234.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 222-244).