Tropicalism meanings: the views of José Ramos Tinhorão and Roberto Schwarz

• Grant number: 22/01053-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Francisco Cabral Alambert Junior
• Grantee: Vitor Morais Graziani
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Tropicalism was a movement of implosion in the national-popular culture that, in the light of the defeat symbolized by the civil-military coup dé tat in 1964, looked for reconnecting the artists to the masses because of the new modernization reality that the dictatorship imposed: plutocratic and authoritarian capitalism. In this vertigo for the modern, the Tropicalists sought to occupy all possible spaces - from the Jovem Guarda to the Chacrinha TV show - which caused countless critics about the trustworthiness of the movement in relation to the (revolutionary) interests to the Left of the time, still stuck to the pre-coup culture, such as the experiences of the Centro Popular de Cultura of the União Nacional dos Estudantes (National Students Union). Among the countless critics of the movement, this study intends to investigate how two of them, disparate in their backgrounds, managed to reach close conclusions about the movement: José Ramos Tinhorão, a music critic known for his relations with the Brazilian Communist Party, and Roberto Schwarz, a literary critic of Adornian origin. From different points of view, both pointed to the authoritarian character of Tropicalism, which would meet, albeit, with its endless subtleties, the regime established in 1964.(AU)