Resources

Reading list

An annotated bibliography of books, papers, and films on Brazilian favelas. Listings are limited to works that exist and that have been substantively cited in academic or critical literature.

Memoir and testimony

Carolina Maria de Jesus, Quarto de Despejo: Diário de uma Favelada (1960). The foundational text of favela-rooted Brazilian literature. Carolina's diary of life in the Canindé favela of São Paulo, edited by Audálio Dantas, became one of the most-translated Brazilian books of the twentieth century. English: Child of the Dark (1962).

Carolina Maria de Jesus, Casa de Alvenaria: Diário de uma Ex-Favelada (1961). The continuation of the diary, covering Carolina's life after the success of her first book and her move from Canindé to a brick house. Less famous than the first volume, equally valuable.

Eliana Sousa Silva, Testemunhos da Maré (2015). Ethnography and oral history of the Maré complex by Sousa Silva, drawing on decades of work in the community.

Ethnography

Janice Perlman, The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in Rio de Janeiro (1976). The foundational anglophone ethnography of Rio de Janeiro favelas. Established the empirical case against the then-dominant "marginality theory" that treated favela populations as economically and socially disconnected from the city.

Janice Perlman, Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro (2010). A follow-up to The Myth of Marginality, returning to the same households and communities decades later. One of the most substantial longitudinal studies of favela life.

Brodwyn Fischer, A Poverty of Rights: Citizenship and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro (2008). Historical account of how Brazilian law and bureaucracy constructed the differential citizenship of favela residents over the twentieth century.

Christina Vital da Cunha, Oração de Traficante: Uma Etnografia (2015). Ethnography of religion and drug-trafficking in Rio favelas, particularly the relationship between evangelical churches and armed groups.

James Holston, Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil (2008). A long-arc study of urban citizenship in São Paulo's peripheries, including substantial engagement with informal settlement.

History

Licia do Prado Valladares, A Invenção da Favela: Do Mito de Origem a Favela.com (2005). The reference text on the history of how Brazilian intellectuals, journalists, and bureaucrats invented and reinvented the concept of favela across the twentieth century.

Maurício de Almeida Abreu, Evolução Urbana do Rio de Janeiro (1987). The reference historical-geography of Rio de Janeiro's urbanization, including its favelas.

Nabil Bonduki, Origens da Habitação Social no Brasil (1998). The reference history of Brazilian social housing across the twentieth century.

Public security and the drug trade

Luiz Eduardo Soares, MV Bill, and Celso Athayde, Cabeça de Porco (2005). Co-authored book combining sociology, polemic, and policy analysis on the recruitment of adolescents into the Rio drug trade.

Michel Misse, Crime e Violência no Brasil Contemporâneo (2006). Reference sociological account of Brazilian urban violence and the drug trade.

Bruno Paes Manso and Camila Nunes Dias, A Guerra: A Ascensão do PCC e o Mundo do Crime no Brasil (2018). Detailed historical account of the PCC's emergence and consolidation.

Bruno Paes Manso, A República das Milícias (2020). Sustained reporting on the development and reach of Rio de Janeiro militias.

Ignacio Cano (editor), Os Donos do Morro: Uma Avaliação Exploratória do Impacto das Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora (UPPs) no Rio de Janeiro (2012). The foundational empirical evaluation of the early UPP period.

Fiction

Paulo Lins, Cidade de Deus (1997). Novel of crime, family, and neighborhood across two decades in the West Zone Rio community.

Ferréz, Capão Pecado (2000). Foundational novel of the literatura marginal movement.

Conceição Evaristo, Ponciá Vicêncio (2003) and Becos da Memória (2006). Major recent novels rooted in Black working-class Brazilian neighborhoods.

Film

Cidade de Deus, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund (2002). The most internationally visible Brazilian film about favelas; based on Paulo Lins's novel.

Tropa de Elite, directed by José Padilha (2007), and Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo Agora é Outro (2010). Films centered on the Rio military police's BOPE tactical unit. Reception has been sharply divided.

Notícias de Uma Guerra Particular, directed by João Moreira Salles and Kátia Lund (1999). Foundational documentary on Rio's drug-war landscape.

Babilônia 2000, directed by Eduardo Coutinho (2000). Documentary filmed on 31 December 1999 across multiple Rio favelas.

Falcão: Meninos do Tráfico, directed by MV Bill and Celso Athayde (2006). Documentary on the lives of young people in low-level drug-trafficking work across multiple Brazilian cities.