Do ceticismo aos extremos: cultura intelectual brasileira nos escritos de Tristão de Athayde (1916-1928)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal a general process by which theBrazilian intellectual culture have passed between the 1910s and1930s. In particular, it highlights the rising prospects against theprinciples of the Republican Constitution of 1891 that is seen asoutdated after the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the riseof Italian fascism. In this sense, the intellectual and biographicaltrajectory of the literary critic Tristão de Athayde (Alceu AmorosoLima) is quite significant. Through his periodical work, its possible tosee the different aspects of this major process: cultural debates,evaluations about international news, political analysis, criticalreflection on national identity and about the peculiar condition of acountry divided between hinterland and coast, disputes around theBrazilian modern art, discussions about the role of religion in society,conflicts about gender issues and women rights, the discussions aboutthe best political system for Brazil etc. "From skepticism to extremes"reveals how each one of these topics stopped to embrace plurals viewsand relatively democratic prospects, making the turning point to arevolutionary horizon in which the use of violence to achieve politicalgoals became an almost banal truth.