A short springtime before the long winter: a historical cartography of Brazilian culture before the coup d’état of 1964

Abstract

This article presents a critical mapping of Brazilian culture between 1955 and 1964, a crucial period for the emergence and affirmation of ideological, aesthetic and cultural values that marked the vigorous cultural scene in Brazil. That cultural milieu had at its core the formulation of projects shaped by engagement in the construction of a modern and socially integrated Brazil. The intellectual and artistic movements of the period tried to express the dilemmas and predicaments of Brazilian backwardness by attempting to influence state policies that were designed to overcome “underdevelopment”. My starting point is that the cultural scene of the era referred to certain elements of modernism, such as the search for national identity and the role of the intellectual, and helped to prepare the “cultural hegemony” of the national-popular left that arose after the 1964 coup. The article examines the specific historicity of artistic-cultural projects and maps the various currents that shaped Brazilian cultural life during this key moment, which provided a specific intertwining of politics and culture.

Keywords: Brazil: cultural history, Brazil: culture and politics, intellectual commitment.