The Collector Collector: a Novel by Tibor Fischer

The Collector Collector: a Novel by Tibor Fischer

In this history of right-wing politics in Brazil during the Cold War, Benjamin Cowan puts the spotlight on the Cold Warriors themselves. Drawing on little-tapped archival records, he shows that by midcentury, conservatives--individuals and organizations, civilian as well as military--were firmly situated in a transnational network of right-wing cultural activists. They subsequently joined the powerful hardline constituency supporting Brazil's brutal military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. There, they lent their weight to a dictatorship that, Cowan argues, operationalized a moral panic that conflated communist subversion with manifestations of modernity, coalescing around the crucial nodes of gender and sexuality, particularly in relation to youth, women, and the mass media.

The confluence of an empowered right and a security establishment suffused with rightist moralism created strongholds of anticommunism that spanned government agencies, spurred repression, and generated attempts to control and even change quotidian behavior. Tracking how limits to Cold War authoritarianism finally emerged, Cowan concludes that the record of autocracy and repression in Brazil is part of a larger story of reaction against perceived threats to traditional views of family, gender, moral standards, and sexuality--a story that continues in today's culture wars.

Tibor Fischer was born in Stockport, England in 1959 to Hungarian parents, both professional basketball players who had left Hungary in 1956. He grew up in south London before going to Cambridge University to study Latin and French. His first novel, Under the Frog, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. It tells the story of a Hungarian basketball player, Gyuri Fischer, dreaming of escape to the West while on a tour in 1950s Hungary.

His recent fiction includes The Thought Gang, the adventures of a middle-aged philosopher turned bank robber; The Collector Collector, the bizarre story of a pottery bowl; and Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid, seven tales of alienated and marginalised characters.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780805051186
ISBN 10	080505118X
Title	The Collector Collector: a Novel
Author	Tibor Fischer
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Henry Holt & Company Inc
Year published	1997-05-15
Number of pages	221
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable