Politics and Culture in the Brasilian Left a Historiographical Balance

Abstract

This article offers a critical assessment of the trajectory of committed left art in Brazil between end of the 1950’s and end of the 1970’s, based on established bibliographic debates and more recent historiographical revisions. The focus is on the trajectory of the national-popular culture and the aesthetic propositions developed by artists linked to the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), which suffered a major criticism from the late 1960’s by other left currents. From this central perspective, we analyze tensions and contradictions within the established historiography on Brazilian left culture, caused by its excessive tribute to the memory produced by historical protagonists involved in cultural struggles in the 1960’s and 1970’s.