A afirmação da cultura brasileira: dos sertões da Bahia às metamorfoses de casasgrandes e de senzalas

Abstract

This article investigates the contributions of intellectuals to the valorization of the Brazilian community during the years 1930-1940; substituting the objectivation of the heavy historical legacy inherited from the slavery system of large colonial plantations to the study of a miscigenated population. First, this article reviews the book Os Sertões by Euclides da Cunha, where the signification of the war against the Canudos village is deciphered in terms of elimination of an emerging race resulting from the cross-breeding of the Whites and the Indians. Then the study of three of the main works of the years 30-40, Casa Grande e Senzala (Masters and Slaves) by Gilberto Freyre, Raízes do Brasil (Brazil’ Roots) by Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda and Formação do Brasil Contemporâneo (The making of contemporary Brazil) by Caio Prado Jr. intends to explain how the social matrix of miscegenation in Brazil and the strong legacy of the slavery system having imprinted the ways of functioning of the political space, the economic field and the rebuilding of social hierarchies have been objectified. The author thus explicits the challenges the nation has to face in order to preserve itself and to build the future.

Keywords

• Brazil
• intellectuals
• miscegenation
• national culture