Joyful, the End of the World: a brief overview of prostitution since Brazilian modernism

Abstract

In what follows, I briefly outline an overview of artistic representations of prostitution during the first phase of Brazilian Modernism (1922–1930). I select this period as a point of departure because I discern, within avant-garde modernity, a certain shift in the discourses surrounding prostitution – particularly when compared to the pathologizing and criminological imaginaries that shaped discussions of sexual commerce at the end of the nineteenth century and throughout the Brazilian Belle Époque. Formally (and therefore methodologically) this text operates on the threshold between the encyclopedia entry and the aphorism. This methodological choice seeks, however illusorily, to compensate for an irremediable absence within such epistemes. What remains to be constructed – and this would require a work of considerable scope – is a history of prostitution in Brazilian visual and literary arts.