Brazilian Literature as World Literature is not only an introduction to Brazilian literature but also a study of the connections between Brazil's literary production and that of the rest of the world, particularly European and North American literatures. It highlights the tension that has always existed in Brazilian literature between the imitation of European models and forms and a yearning for a tradition of its own, as well as the attempts by modernist writers to propose possible solutions, such as aesthetic cannibalism, to overcome this tension.