Queerly Cosmopolitan: Bohemia and Belonging in a Brazilian Middle-of-Nowhere City

Description

An ethnography of urban citizenship, global belonging, and queerness in a rapidly growing provincial city in the Global South, Queerly Cosmopolitan explores how people develop a sense of belonging in a city understood by many to be “unimportant” and “in the middle of nowhere.” In his exploration of the city of Teresina and its inhabitants’ attempts to establish a sense of belonging and self-worth, Timothy Eugene Murphy creatively employs queer theory to investigate a community of bohemians. As he follows the participants through different realms of life—nocturnal bohemia, work, family, and intimate friendships—Murphy demonstrates how widely circulating cultural forms, from music to sexuality, offer upwardly mobile communities ways to fashion cosmopolitan lives in even the most peripheral locations. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 A Middle-of-Nowhere Somewhere (Timothy Eugene Murphy)....Pages 3-22 From Terehell to Terenowhere (Timothy Eugene Murphy)....Pages 23-39 Chique Distinction in a Big Small Town (Timothy Eugene Murphy)....Pages 41-71 Front Matter ....Pages 73-73 Nocturnal Bohemia (Timothy Eugene Murphy)....Pages 75-95 Black Sheep by Day (Timothy Eugene Murphy)....Pages 97-120 Friends of Dusk and Dawn (Timothy Eugene Murphy)....Pages 121-141 Epilogue: Queerness as Belonging (Timothy Eugene Murphy)....Pages 143-149 Back Matter ....Pages 151-157