Brazilian publishing dynamics and the rise of right-wing movements (2005-2022)

Abstract

The current research proposal is linked to the Thematic Project "Democracy Crises: Critical Theory and diagnosis of the present time", thus inserting itself into the debate on contemporary democratic crises from the normative framework of Critical Theory. More specifically, it is part of its subproject II, which seeks to investigate contemporary sociability with an emphasis on political culture and the Brazilian case, based on the Habermasian notion of public sphere and the post-Habermasian notion of counterpublics. In this way, as part of an effort to understand the transformations of the Brazilian public sphere model established during the redemocratization, this proposal aims to investigate the process of constitution and strengthening of the new right in the country, specifically observing the role of the book publishing market in the constitution of its ideology. For this purpose, it adopts the following research problem: to systematize the main ideological features of this movement through the discourse analysis of the Brazilian works most influential on its thought - considering the analytical horizon from 2005, with the "mensalão" scandal and the initial configuration of the new right, to 2022, with the end of Jair Bolsonaro's presidential term. Its relevance is justified since - despite the importance of understanding the new right for comprehending the transformation of the Brazilian public sphere, as well as the importance of the metapolitical component in its political practice and of the book publishing market for the production and circulation of its ideas - the specialized literature still lacks a more profound understanding of the interconnections between the rise of the new right and the book publishing dynamics in Brazil. Mitigating this gap is, therefore, the purpose of this project.