A Tropical Belle Epoque
Elite Culture and Society in Turn-of-the-Century Rio de Janeiro

This book, originally published in 1987, is a socio-cultural analysis of a tropical belle epoque: Rio de Janeiro between 1898 and 1914.

Jeffrey D. Needell (Author)

9780521126014, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 January 2010

372 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm, 0.47 kg

This book, originally published in 1987, is a socio-cultural analysis of a tropical belle epoque: Rio de Janeiro between 1898 and 1914. It relates how the city's elite evolved from the semi-rural, slave-owning patriarchy of the coffee-port seat of a monarchy into an urbane, professional, rentier upper crust dominating the centre of a 'modernising' oligarchical republic. It explores such varied topics as architecture, literature, prostitution, urban reform, the family, secondary schools, and the salon. It evokes a milieu increasingly marked by Europe, demonstrating how French and English culture permeated the lives of elite members who adapted it to their needs and perspectives as a dominant stratum of relatively recent and varied origin. This exploration of cultural 'dependency' in a unique, cosmopolitan, fin-de-siecle urban culture will also interest those concerned with the broader questions of culture and colonialism during the high tide of European imperialism.

List of illustrations
List of maps and figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
A note on Brazilian Portuguese orthography and usage
1. Rio de Janeiro: capital of the Brazilian nineteenth century
2. Formal institutions of the elite
3. The salon and the emergence of high society
4. Domestic institutions of the elite
5. The rise of consumer fetishism
6. The literary belle epoque in Rio: the end of the Brazilian nineteenth century
Conclusion
Appendix: defining the elite
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]