Description
"About the Book ""What is liberalism? Must it be tied to private property, individualism, and state-granted rights? Can it coexist with poverty, in a space that confines its residents? Can it be produced in a way that upends ""traditional"" interpretations of success? In this rich ethnography of Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Moisâes Lino e Silva explores what happens when liberalism is inflected by ""deviant"" subjects, those considered to be outside the bounds of normative understandings of liberty. Such marginalized visions of freedom are here known as ""minoritarian liberalism,"" a phrase that stands in for overlapping, alternative modes of freedom-be they queer, favela, or peasant. The book explores a wide swath of favela dwellers, some of whom are considered ""queer""-such as Natasha Kellem, the author's friend and a charismatic self-declared travesti (a gender identity that signifies transition from masculine to feminine)-alongside others that are treated as ""abnormal"" simply because they live in favelas. Through these multiple, interconnected visions of freedom, Lino e Silva builds an understanding of liberalism that pushes at the boundaries of anthropological inquiry""-- Book Synopsis A mesmerizing ethnography of the largest favela in Rio, where residents articulate their own politics of freedom against the backdrop of multiple forms of oppression. Normative liberalism has promoted the freedom of privileged subjects, those entitled to rights-usually white, adult, heteronormative, and bourgeois-at the expense of marginalized groups, such as Black people, children, LGBTQ people, and slum dwellers. In this visceral ethnography of Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Moisés Lino e Silva explores what happens when liberalism is challenged by people whose lives are impaired by normative understandings of liberty. He calls such marginalized visions of freedom ""minoritarian liberalism,"" a concept that stands in for overlapping, alternative modes of freedom-be they queer, favela, or peasant. Lino e Silva introduces readers to a broad collective of favela residents, most intimately accompanying Natasha Kellem, a charismatic self-declared travesti (a term used in Latin America to indicate a specific form of female gender construction opposite to the sex assigned at birth). While many of those the author meets consider themselves ""queer,"" others are treated as ""abnormal"" simply because they live in favelas. Through these interconnected experiences, Lino e Silva not only pushes at the boundaries of anthropological inquiry, but also offers ethnographic evidence of non-normative routes to freedom for those seeking liberties against the backdrop of capitalist exploitation, transphobia, racism, and other patterns of domination. Review Quotes "" Minoritarian Liberalism: A Travesti Life in a Brazilian Favela presents a rich ethnographic study of queer residents of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro's largest slum, deftly crafting a tale of migration, survival and complex social relations against a backdrop of violence and poverty. . . . Lino e Silva offers radical readings of bodily, sexual, social and religious practices as means to liberation outside the familiar technologies of the liberal state.""-- ""Radical Americas"" ""Pretty much the perfect ethnography: a rich set of narratives, properly self-aware, strong descriptions of place and situation, and some really useful theoretical and conceptual frames that go beyond the context of the inquiry itself.""-- ""Timothy Burke, Swarthmore College"" ""A contemplative and engaging ethnography of life in one of Rio de Janeiro's infamous favelas, Minoritarian Liberalism is an exploration of alternative freedoms, distinctive bodies, and surprising pleasures. Best of all, the book features travestis: feisty, gritty, dazzling individuals who never cease to enchant and disquiet.""-- ""Don Kulick, author of 'Travesti: Sex, Gender and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes'"" ""Lino e Silva's remarkable book fulfills its ambition to decolonize the freedom at liberalism's heart. Equal parts erudite political theory and delicate anthropology, it roams a favela in Rio for stories and imaginaries across Blackness, queerness, gender, and class, where it discovers everywhere the bubbling of minoritarian desires and practices of freedom. This beautifully written work does nothing less than bring liberalism--as theory and practice--into the twenty-first century.""-- ""Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley"" About the Author Moisés Lino e Silva is tenured faculty in the department of anthropology at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Brazil."
