The emerging field of psychosocial studies signifies a confluence of
disciplines for whom the fantasies, repressions and cultural practices
underlying national identity represents a crucial research focus. This book
presents a psychosocial portrayal of Brazil's arrival on the international
stage in the economic boom of the run-up to its hosting of the 2014 World Cup
and the 2016 Olympic Games. This former Portuguese colony is a country of
contradictions in need of a new image; a nation that needs to be able to both
love and sell itself in today's neo-liberal reality. It argues that a
contemporary representation of Brazilian subjectivity is best enabled through
an interdisciplinary perspective. Five key themes — to be explored in all
their contradictions and ambivalence — structure the book: fantasies of the
nation; xenophobia and denial; Brazilian cultural practice; transnational
mobility; and gender, race and Brazilian identity.
