The place of legacies and originality: a reflexion on the essayism of Roberto Schwarz

• Grant number: 14/10503-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2014
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal researcher: Mariana Miggiolaro Chaguri
• Grantee: Maria Caroline Marmerolli Tresoldi
• Home Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to consider the theoretical legacy of Roberto Schwarz and his critical originality. First of all, we have tried to analyses from that attempt how some of Schwarz's influences operate in his work, especially those concerning the "contradictory" tradition - composed by Lukács, Adorno and Benjamin -, once we have made the assumption that the reflexion developed by these authors about the imbricated and necessary relation between form (artistic) and intrinsic content (social, historical, political and cultural) is a central matter of Schwarz's critical notes, as well as the method of enunciation (the essay) and the concepts that have significance to the form (as dialectic, mediation, totality and constellation). Once the investigation of influences is done, we have tried to understand, as a secondary matter, the traits that distinguish Schwartz from his theoretical legacy. In other words, we have tried to ponder if the inspiration in the "contradictory" tradition is just an application of concepts and models, or if it is a peculiar way of analysis that sheds light on the literature and the society, which are made and developed in the context of peripheral capitalism.