"Revolution and Time: Nationalism, Socialism, and Temporality in Cuba"

• Grant number: 13/23833-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2014
• End date: February 14, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Theory of Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Lilia Katri Moritz Schwarcz
• Grantee: João Felipe Ferreira Gonçalves
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project will analyze the semantics of the term "Revolution" in Cuba, as a way of discussing the relationship between temporality, nationalism, and state socialism. Examining the multiple uses of this term and its correlates, the project aims to understand the historicity and temporality that they presuppose and help produce. In the semantic field that has prevailed in Cuba since the 1960s, the term "Revolution" denotes the contemporary regime as well as the nationalist struggles initiated in the nineteenth century, whereas the term "revolutionary" enjoys a positive moral evaluation even among critics of the regime. This project will analyze these phenomena and relate them to the official discourse's emphasis on the setbacks suffered by socialism, and to the popular experience of a temporality characterized by everyday difficulties and by a permanent wait. The first preliminary hypothesis of this project is that the conjunction of these phenomena has produced in Cuba a "revolving revolution" marked by a permanent reiteration of battles and by an ad infinitum postponing of the final success of socialism. The second preliminary hypothesis is that the polysemic character of the correlates of the term "Revolution" in Cuba has contributed to political compliance and to the preservation of socialism in the country. This project is based on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and archival research, and will analyze the vast personal archive that I have collected in my previous fieldwork, as well as two months of complementary field research. The main products of this project will be conferences at USP, paper presentations in national and international conferences, the publication of four articles in highly respected periodicals, and a book that will put together those articles and two additional - introductory and concluding - chapters.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

JOÃO FELIPE GONÇALVES. REVOLUÇÃO, VOLTAS E REVESES: TEMPORALIDADE E PODER EM CUBA. Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, v. 32, n. 93, 2017-01-05. (13/23833-8)