Ideological devices of colonialism in Antonio Candido’s interpretation of Brazil (1965-1966)

Abstract

Between 1965 and 1966, Antonio Candido wrote “Nature, élements et trajectoire de la culture brésilienne” (1965) and “Literatura de dois gumes” (1966), texts in which he  presented reflections on the colonial dimension of Brazilian formation, focusing on national cultural and literary manifestations. In these essays, the critic identified, in an original way, that some notions crystallized by Brazilian historiography, such as the ideas of “racial democracy” and “cordiality”, were developments, in the intellectual field, of colonialism, that is, of the mental plundering historically operated by the center of capitalism in the Americas and Africa throughout modernity. As a result, the critic developed an anti-colonial reading of national reality, aimed at destabilizing the hegemonic readings of our formation.