Brazilian Tropicalismo: aesthetic and epistemology in debate

Authors

  • Ana Carolina da Luz Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales es una Unidad Ejecutora, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Author https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2989-8523

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15517/rr.v107i1.0011

Keywords:

History of ideas, Latin American philosophy, Coloniality of knowledge, Cultural critics, Brazilian dictatorship

Abstract

Introduction: Brazilian Tropicalism was the object of intense debates in the cultural and political field during the military dictatorship of the 1960s, particularly following the critiques formulated by sectors close to and sympathetic with the left. Among the most relevant interpretations on the subject, that of Roberto Schwarz stands out. He set Tropicalism against Paulo Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed, considering the former aesthetically innovative but politically regressive. This debate constitutes a nodal point for understanding the tensions between aesthetics, politics, and popular culture in Brazil at the time.

Objective: To critically analyze Roberto Schwarz's reading of Brazilian Tropicalism and its opposition to the pedagogy of the oppressed, in order to propose an alternative interpretation that recognizes Tropicalism's epistemic authority as a situated form of Latin American thought.

Method: This work is situated within the theoretical-methodological perspective of the history of Latin American ideas, anchored in Latin American philosophy and in dialogue with decolonial theory. Through a discursive analysis of key texts by Roberto Schwarz, Caetano Veloso, and João Camillo Penna, part of the field of aesthetic-political debates in 1960s Brazil is reconstructed, attending to the notions of rationality, aesthetics, the people, and sensible experience.

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Author Biography

  • Ana Carolina da Luz , Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales es una Unidad Ejecutora, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

    Brasileña radicada en Argentina. Investiga desde la perspectiva teórico-metodológica de la Historia de las ideas en diálogo con teorías estéticas, decoloniales y liberacionistas. Busca recuperar el pensamiento crítico latinoamericano a través del análisis de sus formas de producción simbólica, especialmente su materia musical, para una comprensión de los cruces entre estética y política en la historia de la sociedad latinoamericana. Es doctoranda en Filosofía en la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, becaria del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), magíster en Estudios Latinoamericanos por la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo y licenciada en Comunicación Social por la Universidad Estadual de Londrina (Brasil). En su trayectoria se destacan las estancias de investigación realizadas en distintas áreas: en Antropología, en la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (México); en Historia, en la Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais (Brasil); y en Filosofía, en la Universidad de Málaga (España). Ha actuado también como traductora, revisora y profesora del idioma portugués para hispanohablantes.

References

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Burnett, Henry. (2018). Sobre «O Tropo Tropicalista» de João Camillo Penna. Revista Calibán. https://revistacaliban.net/sobre-o-tropo-capitalista-de-jo%C3%A3o-camillo-Penna-2db499514250

De Andrade, Oswald. (1928). Manifesto antropófago. UFRGS. https://www.ufrgs.br/cdrom/oandrade/oandrade.pdf

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Schwarz, Roberto. (1978). Cultura e política 1964–1969. En Roberto Schwarz, O pai de família e outros estudos (pp. 61-92). Paz e Terra.

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Published

2026-08-11

Issue

Vol. 107 No. 1 (2028): Continuous publication [open number]-January-June

Section

Articles from Research Studies

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Copyright (c) 2026 Ana Carolina da Luz (Autor/a)

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How to Cite

Brazilian Tropicalismo: aesthetic and epistemology in debate. (2026). Reflexiones Journal, 107(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.15517/rr.v107i1.0011