Document details

The Politics of the Essay. Lusotropicalism as Ideology and Theory

Author(s): Silva, Filipe Carreira da ; Villaverde Cabral, Manuel

Date: 2020

Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/43990

Origin: Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa

Subject(s): Lusotropicalism; essayism; Gilberto Freyre; Jorge Dias; António Sérgio; postcoloniality; hybridity; miscegenation


Description

In this article we discuss the politics of the essay of three major twentieth-century Portuguese-speaking intellectuals: Gilberto Freyre, Jorge Dias and António Sérgio. Our topic of discussion is Lusotropicalism. Through an examination of the essayist production of these thinkers (1920s-1960s), we revisit this social theoretical account of racial miscegenation, social assimilation and cultural hybridity originally developed by Freyre by reference to Brazil and later extended to the case of the Portuguese colonial empire. In particular, the article shows how the essay performs a crucial role in the origins, process of development and the implications of this social theory. By eliciting a reflective interplay between form and content, the essay trumps both the journal article and the monograph in providing these three key intellectuals with the outlet with which to think through a social theory that briefly doubled as an ideology of state.

Document Type Journal article
Language English
Contributor(s) Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa
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