Brazilian Modernisms and Critical Theory

 

Modernism was a ringing alarm. Everyone woke up and perfectly saw the aurora in the air. The aurora contained within itself all the promises of the day, but it was not day yet [...]

Mário de Andrade. O empalhador de passarinho (1944)

 

On the occasion of the centenary of the “Semana de Arte Moderna de 22”  [Brazilian Week of Modern Art of 1922], Dissonância: Critical Theory Journal suggests revisiting Brazilian Modernisms. The special issue aims to contribute to the intertwining of relationships between artistic forms and the Brazilian historical and social processes under the conceptual scope of Critical Theory.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, different types of modernisms have been dwelt on by artists, critics, and scholars in Brazil as a task to be fulfilled or a tradition to be put under dispute. The commitment of Brazilian artists in renewing art languages in its form and its content has culminated, in the academic sphere, in the idea of seeking the process of a formation of Brazilian culture and nationality. Later on, this was understood as attempts to modernise the country - a project that, however, remains unfinished.

If one could not dissociate our first modernist impetus from the European avant-garde project, it seems at once necessary to consider the specificities of a speech which forges its own modernity. According to Antonio Candido, Modernism densified the dialectics of “localism and cosmopolitanism”, for the European artistic avant-guards would have been assimilated here with a reversed sign: our weaknesses were reinterpreted as superiorities. This took the form of a dual process, therefore of integration and differentiation, whose unfolding would be a “localist unrepression” [“desrecalque localista”]. Roberto Schwarz, one of the most decisive Scholars in Brazilian reception of Critical Theory, rethinks precisely this relationship between local and global: he understands our national malformation's traits as a structural part of global capital rather than a cross-cultural contribution.

In this sense, Critical Theory can enable fruitful reflections on Brazilian Modernisms and on the contradictions of Modernity, as well as on its different manifestations in our country. Thus, Dissonância invites submissions of articles and reviews of texts that address developments and contradictions on the themes proposed here. 

We encourage submissions on the following topics:

  • Points of convergence between Critical Theory and Brazilian modernisms

  • Critical Theory in/about Brazil: critics and dialogs

  • Brazilian modernisms and European avant-guards

  • Critical Theory, art and popular culture in Brazil

  • Critical Theory, modern art, and abstractionism in Brazil

  • Brazilian Modernism and dialectical critics

  • Modernism, conservative modernization, and global capital

  • Modernisms, media and culture industry

 
New submission deadline: April 15th, 2022.

Editors: Taisa Palhares, Bruna Batalhão, Isabela Oliveira, João Paulo Andrade, Juliana Franco

For more information check our guidelines for authors and of formatting/style, quotations, and references.