Between the radical democrat and the protofascist: Sergio Buarque de Holanda's figure in the critical reception of Raízes do Brasil by Antonio Candido and Jessé Souza

Abstract

This research project consists of a study of the critical reception of Raízes do Brasil by Antonio Candido and Jessé Souza. It aims to investigate how despite being associated with a generically left political spectrum both critics deeply differ in their opinions. Such readings answer the discursive struggles that characterized two different historical contexts: on the one hand, after the Brazilian military coup in 1964, Candido promotes the canonization of Sérgio Buarque de Holanda as a "coherent radical democrat" (Candido, 2006, p. 252), betting on the radicalism and democratic strength present in Raízes do Brasil. On the other hand, in the context of today's democratic institutions crisis, Souza invests strongly against the author and his work, classifying them as "the perfect legitimation of Brazilian proto-fascism" (Souza, 2017, p. 184). The second part of the research aims to investigate the reconstruction of the image of Sérgio Buarque de Holanda associated with Raízes do Brasil, considering textual evidence supported by the recent critical edition of the essay (2016) and the discursive field of dialogues and struggles that permeate the first edition of the essay in its context. This study takes into account the consolidation of the national-developmentalist political ideal the formation of the modernist paradigm. (AU)