Continuidades e descontinuidades no Brasil em movimento de Glauber Rocha [1963 a 1969]: do elogio ao popular à denúncia do populismo

Abstract

In the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, within a context marked by political tension and the consolidation of different interpretations regarding the formation, history, and culture of Brazil, multiple perceptions of nationality emerged. These perceptions sparked intense repercussion and debate in the press, academic circles, and the arts, primarily guided by praise for the popular and condemnation of populism. The thesis of a "popular Brazil" had been emphasized since the 1920s and was further theorized with more focus in the 1950s, particularly through the work of the Instituto Superior de Estudos Brasileiros (ISEB). The view of Brazil as populist materialized in the mid-20th century and was established as a thesis in the Social Sciences during the 1960s, becoming one of the most emblematic features of Brazilian politics of that period. This binomial perception shaped the national discourse, dichotomized between the ideal of state reform and the denunciation of political demagogy and the alienation of the masses. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the movement of continuity and discontinuity between the praise of the popular and the denunciation of populism in the films "Deus e o diabo na terra do sol" (1964), "Maranhão 66" (1966), "Terra em transe," and "O dragão da maldade contra o santo guerreiro" (1969), by the Bahian filmmaker Glauber Rocha. This investigation is conducted in the light of historical chronicles, collective memory, and contemporary sociological theses of the nation concurrent with these cinematic narratives. The plots, divided between revolutionary perspective and pessimism/frustration, depict popular characters sometimes leaning towards political and social militancy, sometimes driven by alienation. Political and popular leaders either converge in the fight against oppression or are influenced by demagogy. These elements are fundamental for the construction of a continuous-discontinuous representation of struggle and repression, resistance and censorship, resilience and resignation, the dichotomy between the popular and populism in the discourse of nationality as proposed by the Bahian author in his filmography between 1964 and 1969. These binomials form the core of the analysis proposed in this thesis.