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

This article presents a critical cartography 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 scene 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 address the dilemmas and predicaments of Brazilian backwardness by attempting to influence state policies designed to overcome “underdevelopment”. My starting point is that the cultural scene of that time referred to certain elements of modernism, such as the search for national identity and the role of intellectuals as protagonists, and helped to prepare the “cultural hegemony” of the national-popular left after the 1964 coup. The article discusses 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.