Between Beacons and Mirrors: Texts and Collections That Constitute the "Interpreters of Brazil"

• Grant number: 25/08279-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Brazilian Literature
• Principal Investigator: Alfredo Cesar Barbosa de Melo
• Grantee: Clara Machado Alba
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project investigates two major developments within the field of Brazilian national interpretations. The first concerns the dynamics of extensive canonization, characterized by the preservation of a core group of classical authors alongside the incorporation of new social actors. This expansion of the critical repertoire unfolds through multiple perspectives - including race, class, gender, and ideological lineage - and extends beyond the traditional essayistic format, encompassing fiction literature, diaries, popular music, dance, and religious practices.The second development is the persistence of the "language of formation" as a cognitive and cultural structure that organizes the understanding of national dilemmas. Despite the renewal of authorial profiles and the diversification of discursive formats, a historical grammar continues to frame the recognition of intellectual authority and access to public debate.The central hypothesis of this study is that, while new voices and supports are incorporated, they do not break with the inherited symbolic repertoire; rather, they reinscribe and reoccupy it with new contents and agents, while maintaining the tradition of the "interpreters of Brazil."The project adopts intellectual history as its theoretical framework, particularly drawing on J. G. A. Pocock's perspective on the formation of political languages, and involves the analytical annotation (fichamento) of foundational texts, recent collections, and theoretical-methodological works.