Brazil under Construction tracks how Brazil's major public works projects and the fiction surrounding them mark a twofold construction of the nation: the functional construction of the country's public infrastructure and the symbolic construction of nationhood.

Sophia Beal is an is an assistant professor in Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Minnesota.

1. An Introduction to the Fiction of Public Works 2. Conquering the Dark: Literature, Lighting, and Public Space in Rio de Janeiro in the Early 1900s 3. The Spectacle of Light: A Public Works Company in Southeastern Brazil (1906-71) 4. Brasília: The Real and Promised City in 1960s Brazilian Literature 5. Fiction and Massive Public Works during the Brazilian Military Regime (1964-85) 6. São Paulo's Failed Public Works in Ferréz's Capão Pecado and Luiz Ruffato's Eles eram muitos cavalos Epilogue