Abstract:
It is easy to note from the existing bibliography that actors such as Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius were decisive in the constitution of what we call a langue and an image of miscegenation in Brazil. The idea that “Brazilian civilization” was exceptional was founded on an imaginary revolving around the miscegenation of three races. We argue that Gilberto Freyre played a prominent role in updating and disseminating this language by arguing that Brazil’s civilizational originality was based on miscegenation and a balance among antagonisms. In doing so, Freyre built a remarkably conservative mindset. This did not, however, prevent a systematic revisitation of this intellectual framework by critical cultural and intellectual movements. Notable cases in this regard are: anthropophagy, tropicalism and some postcolonial studies. This study explores these movements: (i) to expose the main lines of Freyre’s thought about a supposedly mixed-race tropical civilization and (ii) to reveal the uses that were made of this imaginary and of Freyre’s diagnosis by the above-mentioned movements. We conclude that, despite deconstructive practices, the metonymy between miscegenation and the construction of an appeased national identity is dominant.
Keywords:
Brazilian political and social thought; hybridization; Gilberto Freyre; anthropophagy; tropicalism; postcolonial studies