As modernidades de Roberto Schwarz

Abstract

Roberto Schwarz is known for the way in which, through his criticism of Brazilian literature and/or culture, he presented a relatively original diagnosis  of  the process of national formation. To this end, he mobilized a notion of modernity that,  in  the  view of some  critics, was excessively idealized, establishing itself as a parameter from which the “absences” of the “real” Brazil were identified. Schwarz thus oscillated between cosmopolitanism  and nationalism, precisely the antinomy he had sought to overcome. Without ruling out the possible relevance of these criticisms, the article defends the  hypothesis that, if, in fact, Schwarz uses an ideal notion of modern ideologies, especially liberalism, it is because he takes them as “concepts” to be tense with historical-social objectivity, within the scope of a critique that claims to be “immanent.” The important thing, for the author, is to explore the mismatches between the theory and practice of the Brazilian elites, a gap that would reveal the type of ideological domination — in  the “second degree” — and material established in the country from the 19th century onwards.