Revista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros
The University of São Paulo's Brazilian Studies Institute is a multidisciplinary centre for education, research and documentation on the culture of the nation. With a staff of scholars from various backgrounds, the centre offers graduate, post-graduate, diffusion and extension courses, as well as orientation in scientific initiation, master and post-doctoral studies. To reflect on Brazilian society through the articulation of multiple fields of knowledge was the challenge at the heart of the IEB's foundation in 1962, by Sergio Buarque de Holanda, and it has motivated the production of a wealth of original research ever since, some of which has found its outlet in its Revista (Journal). Created in 1966, the Journal of the Brazilian Studies Institute - USP was published without interruption until 1997. Given the very nature of the institute, the Journal always followed a multidisciplinary approach, embracing different trends and lines of research and opening its pages to researchers from an enormous diversity of institutions. In many fields of knowledge, the Journal played a part in the drive to renew Brazilian studies that began in the 1960s, serving as one of the key outlets for the diffusion of original scientific research from Brazilian universities and their post-graduate programs between 1970 and 1990. It was also one of the vehicles for the divulgation of the IEB's vast archive, which today includes the personal collections of such fundamental names in Brazilian culture as Mário de Andrade, Graciliano Ramos, Guimarães Rosa, Osman Lins, Alberto Lamego, Yan de Almeida Prado, José Honório Rodrigues, Caio Prado Jr., Pierre Monbeig, Anita Malfatti, Francisco Mignone and Camargo Guarnieri. The IEB Journal, a forum for debate devoted to incorporating a multiplicity of themes, schools of thought and lines of research, was resumed in September 2006 with the proposal of integrating the various branches of the Humanities, accepting the challenge of critically thinking Brazil and facilitating dialogue between different fields of knowledge - though without compromising on the specificities and technical rigor demanded by the specialist reader. Its goal is, therefore, to present studies of such theoretical and methodological relevance and significance that they can and should transcend compartmentalization. Furthermore, it is with that same objective of promoting debates in which knowledge from disparate origins can meet and interact that the IEB Journal opens its pages to both the analysis of problems facing contemporary Brazil and to reflections that investigate theoretical dimensions of Brazilian studies. To this end, it assumes the challenge of molding itself into an agglutinative - but not harmonizing - forum for the countless frontiers of knowledge.
Universidade de São Paulo. Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros
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The book Correspondência inédita e anotada – Alberto de Serpa – João Cabral de Melo Neto – O cavalo de todas as cores, organized by Solange Fiuza and Arnaldo Saraiva, was published in 2025 by Ateliê Editorial and presents the official correspondence between two writers, the Brazilian João Cabral de Melo Neto (1920-1999) and the Portuguese Alberto de Serpa (1906-1992). This review focuses on this volume, including the essays written by the organizers and the letters transcribed in the edition.
Copyright (c) 2025 Revista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Conservation in context: values, risks and decisions
This essay examines conservation and restoration practices at the Institute of Brazilian Studies (IEB/USP) by comparing three types of paper-based collections – archival documents, works on paper from the Visual Arts Collection, and books from the Library – which share the same materiality but operate under distinct statutes. From an ethical standpoint, it discusses how values, risks, and principles guide technical decisions and care policies. Three vignettes reveal different approaches to prevention, conservation, and restoration, highlighting the role of time as a coauthor: to intervene is to edit its passage without silencing the material voice of the object.
Mônica Aparecida Guilherme da Silva Bento
A collection of fictional writings by Nione Claudino, comprising a thematic panel of her recent literary production. A graduate in Literature from Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”, the author presented, during her master's degree at Middlesex University in London, under the supervision of Jonathan Kemp, the creative process of her first novel. In 2023, with “A vendedora de café”, she won the Purorrelato competition, organized by Casa África, in the Canary Islands. She was a finalist for the Off Flip Literature Award in the Short Stories category and participated for the first time in the collection Nós: textos de autoria feminina (2023). In addition to Nós 2 (2024), she participated in the collection Tchê! (2025c) and had her short story “Ideal” published in Revista Tinta Azul (2024). This was followed by her third participation in the anthology Nós 3, with a short story and a chronicle (2025a; 2025c). She currently lives in Marseille, France, dedicating herself to literary research while finishing her first novel.
The article summarizes two dissertations on Tom Zé defended in the Graduate Program in “Brazilian Cultures and Identities” at IEB/USP: Three essays about Tom Zé’s Tropicália: from the Popular Music Festivals to the current public and private cultural fundings, by Patrícia Anette Schroeder Gonçalves; and “Baptize this baby”: market, MPB, samba and social process in Tom Zé’s Estudando o samba, by Leilor Miranda Soares. Both summaries discuss issues such as Tom Zé’s relationship with Tropicália, some of his compositional and performative resources, and the place the artist has occupied over time in the hegemonic market.
Speech delivered on the occasion of the tribute organized by the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of São Paulo in honor of the artist Tom Zé, in recognition of his body of work and his contribution to Brazilian culture. The ceremony was held on June 24, 2025, at the István Jancsó Auditorium, University City, Butantã campus.
Three unpublished letters from Mário de Andrade to Murilo Mendes
This essay aims to present three unpublished letters from Mário de Andrade to Murilo Mendes, which are deposited in Jorge de Lima’s collection, at the Arquivo-Museu de Literatura Brasileira (AMLB) at Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, in Rio de Janeiro. Among the missives (written in 1932 and 1933) there two manuscripts of two poemas by Mário, “Nova canção do Tamoio” e “Girassol da madrugada”. In turn, in Mário de Andrade’s collection at Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros of the Universidade de São Paulo (IEB/USP), thirty-two documents are preserved, including letters and handwritten notes, sent by Murilo to Mário, between 1928 and 1944.
Nietzsche on the desk in the house on Lopes Chaves street
In his collection of books, maintained by the Library of the Institute of Brazilian Studies, Mário de Andrade kept works by Friedrich Nietzsche in French translation edited in the 1910s and 1920s. This article aims to analyse the Brazilian author's reading of the German philosopher’s work, following, to this end, his marginalia. Thus, it seeks to situate Mário de Andrade, either as a reader or as a writer, in the context of Nietzsche’s reception in Brazil.
Imaginative observation and defetishization in “Noite morta” by Manuel Bandeira
This article presents an analysis of the poem “Noite morta”, by Manuel Bandeira, from O ritmo dissoluto (1924). The analysis seeks to demonstrate, considering the aesthetic specificity of the text, the de-fetishizing character of Bandeira’s poem, considering Lukácsian concepts such as “receptive experience” and “catharsis”. The central hypothesis is that the poem presents the reader with a journey that goes from the singularity of everyday situations to human generality, through the constitution of a system of ambivalences that refers the poem to the de-fetishizing tendency of art.
Between “Sacigiotto” and “Sacigropius”: the studio, the city and the public legacy of Luiz Sacilotto
This article analyzes the work and reflections of Luiz Sacilotto between the 1950s and the 1970s based on three little-known items found in his studio in Santo André: an advertisement featuring him as a poster boy; a page from Acropole magazine about the Mainumbi building project in São Vicente; and an interview with Lasar Segall Museum in 1977. These elements open up possibilities for discussing his production beyond the historic Ruptura group, including his actions in the urban environment and in contemporary art. The study aims to contribute to the historiography of concrete art in Brazil through new interpretations of the work of a central artist for the debate on concrete art.
Regarding a collection of paintings by Tarsila do Amaral: the 1940s
Based on the exhibition “Tarsila do Amaral: peindre le Brésil moderne”, held at the Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, 2024-2025), it is notable how some of the artist’s paintings, created in the 1940s, gain prominence due to elements that both connect them to and distinguish them from her Social and Neo Pau-Brasil phases. In Lenhador em repouso (1940), Terra (1943), Primavera (duas figuras) (1946), Praia (1947) e Estratosfera (1947), we see swift and light, almost pointillist brushstrokes and also a relative distancing from the pictorial social realism he practiced, returning to the metaphysical environments and dreamlike gigantism typical of the anthropophagic period, quite characteristic of works such as Urutu (1928), Anthropophagy (1929), and Abaporu (1928), but in a distinct manner. Due to their particular pictorial composition and the few interpretations dedicated to them, this work aims to analyze these works as a whole and attempt a more general interpretation of them.
Art and feminist activism in Regina Veiga and Laura Rodig (Brazil and Chile, early 20th century
This article investigates the relationship between art and feminist activism in the early 20th century through the trajectories of Regina Veiga (Brazil) and Laura Rodig (Chile), participants in the suffragist movements. It seeks to understand the suffragist iconographic production of the period, its characteristics, political dimensions, and position within the arts, analyzing how they balanced their artistic careers and activism. Drawing on concepts from Howard Becker, Pierre Bourdieu, Aracy Amaral, and Griselda Pollock, it concludes that political engagement did not break artistic autonomy but required mediation; feminist iconography involved a broad network of activists, aiming to create a visual identity that persuaded the public of emancipationist ideals.
The history of Blumenau/SC told through museum clothes
The article analyzes the strategies used in the exhibition of clothing in museums in order to understand the discourse constructed around the displayed garments. The objective is to investigate how these pieces are presented, their rhetorical meaning, and their contribution to the historical narrative of Blumenau. This qualitative study is based on bibliographic and field research, observation, and photographic documentation, offering a comparative analysis among the museums. The study concludes that the exhibitions enable the recognition of thematic categories within the garments and the identification of key figures in the city’s history.
Between school and talent: the genesis of Emesp students’ dispositions
The article investigates the genesis of the musical and professional dispositions of students in the 4th cycle of Emesp – São Paulo State Music School Tom Jobim, during the years 2020 and 2021, and relates the students’ trajectories to their aesthetic preferences and professional paths within the musical field. The study examines both the role of the school within the landscape of music education in São Paulo and the social background of its students. The findings show that, despite the school’s democratizing stance, the “ideology of talent” – a central notion in the artistic-musical field – is reproduced by the institution and internalized by the students analyzed, regardless of their social origin. It was also found that the students’ social position is associated with dominant and subordinate professional aspirations.
Canudos, memories of a soldier: the war as a small story
At the age of 76, the ex-soldier Marcos Evangelista da Costa Villela Júnior wrote a “short story” in which he recalls, as an eyewitness, the war of Canudos (which took place in the state of Bahia between 1896 and 1897). The rereading of this document allows us to understand a central event in the formation of Brazil as a republic and reveals the formation of a field of subaltern knowledge that challenges the hegemonic versions of the war. The comparative reading of relevant works on Canudos war proposes a rethink of the connection between orality and writing, where testimony is combined with narrative structures based on notions such as “rhetoric of sincerity”. From this analysis, it can be deduced that this is a small story that produces great effects, where the legitimation strategies end up subverting the order of official historiography and converting the republican soldier into a sertanejo hero.
The Bantu world in diaspora in Brazil: knowledge, strategies and organizations from Africa
Having as epistemic guide the Dikenga dia Kongo (Bakongo Cosmogram), by Fu-Kiau, we adopt the perspective of Afrocentric studies and anti-racist education to locate black-African traditions within the framework of the diaspora at their own bases and to emphasize the diasporic character of the Bantu world, verifying how these epistemologies that arrive in Brazil, and here constitute vectors of reorganization of Afro-diasporic humanity, manifest themselves by giving body to the caiumba tradition and the organization of Ecobantu – International Meeting of Bantu Traditions. To this end, the text is organized into kala, tukula, luvemba and musoni, solar movements of Bantu-Kongo cosmology that, associated with the ubuntu philosophy and research by other Africanists and Afro-diasporic experiences, teach us about Bantu ways of be-ing in the diaspora.
The names of indigenous origin of Brazilians in the 20th century
This paper aims to provide a summary of the naming practices of Brazilians in the country's indigenous languages, with a particular focus on Tupi, based on data from the 2010 demographic census conducted by IBGE. It seeks to analyze trends in these naming practices and explore the most evident factors influencing them
Manuel Correia de Andrade: decolonization and popularization of science in newspapers
In November 2024, the Institute of Brazilian Studies of the University of São Paulo launched the Digital Collection “Manuel Correia de Andrade: scientific communicator”. It is a set of texts, columns from printed newspapers, written by Andrade, and highlights his role as a scientific disseminator, sharing the knowledge produced in the academic sphere with the society in general. The article seeks to analyze the content of the texts exposed in the aforementioned Digital Collection and points out the elements of decoloniality in these documents.
O Brasil segundo Tom Zé e outros afiados exercícios de interpretação
Editorial da Revista do IEB n. 92 (dez/2025)
The book review: "Josephina, Ignez, and Délia: The Combative Literature of Women of Letters in Late-19th-Century Brazil" highlights Laila Correa e Silva's meticulous research, based on 19th-century Brazilian feminist newspapers, demonstrating the existence of a network of writers engaged in female emancipation. The writers named in the book, among others, are part of a transnational movement. The analysis questions the limited place of women's history in academia and highlights the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to revising the literary canon.
Dressing the body with words: fashion and Literature in the writings of Gilda de Mello e Souza
This article critically analyzes an offshoot of Gilda de Mello e Souza's fashion theory, based on two unpublished texts, “Bricolage” and “Moda”, held at the IEB/USP. These documents reveal that the author's interest in reflecting philosophically on fashion goes beyond her thesis, “A moda no século XIX” (1950), and its subsequent publication as a book under the title, “O espírito das roupas: a moda no século dezenove” (1987). In an original dialogue with authors such as Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Cecil Beaton, and Charles Baudelaire, Gilda de Mello e Souza illuminates fashion as a form of thought and artistic expression. Among all the arts, fashion stands out for constructing subjectivities through clothing, conceived as literature written on the body – thus bringing art and life closer together.
Letters for freedom: writings by enslaved women in eighteenth-century Minas Gerais
This article aims to contextualize and present the edition of the letters written by Joanna Jacinta and Maria Thereza, whose search for freedom motivated the composition of their missives, penned in the captaincy of Minas Gerais during the second half of the eighteenth century. Through rare manuscripts such as these, we observe that, in Portuguese America, letters also served as instruments of struggle and engagement with the world. Moreover, it is through this documentation that we can, today, hear the voices of these two women, who stand as representatives of those long subjected to violence and silencing.
The word in painting or Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and Francis Bacon (1909-1992)
This comparative study deals with Oscar Wilde's “The ballad of Reading Gaol” as a source for Francis Bacon's paintings exhibited at Francis Bacon: the beauty of the flesh (Masp, São Paulo, 2023) as well as the pictures from the Catalogue of the French exhibition Bacon. En toutes lettres (Centre Pompidou, 2019).
Interdisciplinary dialogue between the creative arts
Analysis of the poem and of the paintings
The not-so-hidden face of public policies for democratization and access to higher education in Brazil
Public policies aimed at democratization and access to higher education in the Brazilian context have gained relevance in educational discussions due to the new dynamics of the labour market generated by the advance of global capitalism. This study, based on a critical literature review and documentary analysis, aims to investigate the ideology of capital that permeates policies to encourage democratization and access to higher education, as well as the role of the state in preserving the established order. The results obtained indicate that the model of democratization and access to higher education, promoted through public policies, reveals a scenario of deconstruction of the public sector in the interaction between the state and society.
Noêmia Mourão: the Marie Laurencin of the Americas?
In this article we analyze a shift in the trajectory of Brazilian painter Noêmia Mourão (1912-1992) stemming from her contact with French artist Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), examining how her experience in Paris (1935-1940) transformed her artistic production. We also raise questions about the connections between the two artists both on canvas and in art criticism, noting that not only the themes but also the aesthetic adopted by the Brazilian established dialogues with the acclaimed work of the French painter during that period. Furthermore, we explore how art criticism, both French and Brazilian, received this transformation and built around Mourão a discourse very similar to the one that consolidated Laurencin’s international figure: that she embodied the ideal of “feminine” art.
Laughing gods and the Anthropocene: a contemporary reading of “Maíra” by Darcy Ribeiro
The aim of this paper is to reflect on the novel “Maíra” by Darcy Ribeiro in light of current issues raised by the Anthropocene, more specifically those relating to the conceptions of the body and the sensibility of the Moderns. In order to do this, through an analysis of the characters Maíra and Micura, deities of the Mairuns (a fictional indigenous people created by Darcy), characterized as laughing gods – we seek to understand aspects, on the one hand, of Mairun culture and, on the other, of modern culture, depicted in the novel as the “whites,” in a dissonant encounter with the mairuns. Finally, we recognize that these deities – interested in laughter – productively challenge our modern notion of the body and inspire new ways of relating to the Terrestrial (LATOUR, 2020b) other than the modern ones. “Maíra” and its laughing gods appear as a fertile legacy of Darcy Ribeiro in the midst of the Anthropocene.
The text proposes to think about the imaginary and poetics of the sertões, searching in language for a symbolic framework for reflection on dwelling. When questioning the phenomenological soil of the sertões one soon realizes the sublime nature of the landscape, evoking the wonderful and harsh character of the divide between earth and sky. This dimension becomes a provocation in the face of the place that the sertão occupies in Brazilian thought, that is, one must lookat rustic world as the opposite of modernity. From this perspective opens up the rupture between the sertão and the city.
Children’s writings in the columns of journalist Yvonne Jean (Brasília, 1962)
The present paper is aimed at analyzing the speeches of children of Brasília in 1962 by means of their writings published in the column of journalist Yvonne Jean in the pages of the newspaper Correio Braziliense. The conclusions indicate spoke about their daily lives, the obstacles that the modernist city in formation were facing, the problems that made the lives of adults more expensive, their own needs, their dreams, and their life projects. They spoke – in the tension between disciplined writings and children’s writings – of a world as perceived and apprehended by their optics.
Bandeira Movement and electoral propaganda: the campaign for the election of Armando de Salles to the presidency of the republic (1936-1937)
This study analyzes the Bandeira Movement as an ideology formed during the political game in the mid-1930s. Despite the cancelation of the presidential election in January 1938, this episode can be understood as key moment for understanding the bandeirista ideology and the symbolic construction of Armando de Salles as a national personality. The research used sources such as a magazine S. Paulo (1936) and the newspaper Anhanguera (1937) to explore how the campaign promoted the myth of Salles, structured attacks on his opponents, and crafted denunciations of Getúlio Vargas’ interference in the electoral process.