Interpreters of difference: “Universal” communication and the national body of Brazilian artists in the USA

• Autor(a) principal: Machado,Bernardo Fonseca
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Vibrant
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1809-43412020000100703
• topic: Discourses of difference; actors; theater; Brazil; United States

Abstract Centered on examining the trajectories of Brazilian actors who migrated to the United States with the purpose of studying and working in that country, this article aims to discuss the rhetoric of difference mobilized by subjects to describe states, markets and their own experiences. The proposal is aligned with anthropological research focused on investigating the politics of difference in transnational contexts. During 2015 and 2016, I conducted interviews with eleven Brazilian artists who lived in the USA. These individuals argued that there was a “universal” communication conferred by “art” and relied on the transcendence of their acting techniques - they believed they were capable of playing any character in the new country. However, as they tried to obtain roles, they encountered restrictions precisely because they were foreigners: their accent, physical appearance and the visa-related limitations prevented them a regular professional practice. The main question is: how these subjects formulated about difference?