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.

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