The Depiction of Evil in Brazil’s Cultural Products

Abstract

This thesis examines the portrayal of Evil in contemporary Brazilian cultural products. An analysis of the notion of Evil is followed by a description and analysis of Brazil’s history and religious plurality and an overview of the major literary and film movements in Brazil over the past decades. With the help of the knowledge acquired in these analyses an explanation is sought for the way the image of Evil has become linked to the favela. This leads the way for a final discussion of the movies City of God by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund and Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within directed by José Padilha, and the novel Inferno by Patricia Melo in an attempt to show the way in which the image of Evil is changing and how the focus is shifting from the favela to Brazil’s political system.