Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2021 Program

Jimin Kang ’21
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE
Certificate in Environmental Studies
THESIS TITLE
Tales from Indigenous
Brazil: A Translation of
Daniel Munduruku's
“Chronicles of São
Paulo” and “The
Lessons I've Learned”
ADVISERS
Christina Lee,
Associate Professor of
Spanish and
Portuguese; Jhumpa
Lahiri, Director and
Professor of Creative
Writing
This creative thesis was a critical translation of
two works — “Chronicles of São Paulo” and “The
Lessons I’ve Learned” “Das Coisas que Aprendi”
— by the Indigenous Brazilian writer Daniel
Munduruku, accompanied by a translator’s
preface and a personal essay. Published 15 years
apart, the two books contain a series of firstperson
narratives by Munduruku as he navigates
contemporary Brazil while straddling multiple
divides between urban and rural environments,
Indigenous and Western thought systems, and
his work as a writer and an oral storyteller,
among other distinctions. The works explore the
nuances of Amerindian cosmology as it pertains
to ancestry, mythology and the natural world,
among other areas, as well as of oral storytelling
traditions, Indigenous history and urban life in
Latin America’s biggest city.
ENVIRONMENTAL
HUMANITIES AND CULTURE
30