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UTOPIA: A photo-textMaria Thereza Alves

To cite this Article Alves, Maria Thereza(1992) 'UTOPIA:A photo-text', Third Text, 6: 21, 42 45To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09528829208576383URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09528829208576383

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UTOPIA: a Photo-TextMaria Thereza Alves

Our m embers are practically always doing w hat they w ant to do whatthey 'choose' to do but we see to it that they will wan t to do preciselythe things which are best for themselves and the community. Theirbehaviour is determined, yet they're free.Walden Two, B.F.Skinner

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When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shalldrive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy alltheir pictures, and destroy all their m olten images, and quite pluck downall their high places: and ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land,and dwell therein for I have given you the land to possess it.Numbers, 33:51-53

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Brazil was a mythical place for Europe before 1492.

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The millenia-obssessed ex-pagan Euro pean 's desire for a paradise whichthe Catholic Church has n ot converted into a land of repressed neuroticsis not, in itself, an evil act. And yet, 'utopianization' together withcolonization has resulted in a mythic narrative nam ed 'Brazil'. The mythbecame real once Brazil was named. The process of naming is also oneof appropriation into the po ssessor's history, w hich mu st also include themythologization of those who are being possessed.Possession implies a kind of knowledge. The owner-producedknowledge begins a discourse. That discourse becomes the definition ofthat which is possessed.Brazil, having been a myth since its naming, cannot divest itself of thisimposed function to become un-Brazilian.There are millions of abando ned children in Brazil. What I mean to sayis, where in the Brazilian mythic narrative is there mention of the mindthat abandons?