Tropicália: culture and politics in the 1980´s

Abstract

Tropicália, one of the most important artistic movements in the 1960´s, has been considered as radically opposed to some left wing views that strongly influenced cultural production in the period. This article argues that Tropicália shared with the left the idea that the work of art must have as its suject Brazilian reality, while being at the same time associated with the struggles to bring about revolutionary changes init; nevertheless, the movement created its own version of such a view. Tropicália presented a more complex picture of Brazilian reality than the left wing´s, by pointing to the existence of a combination of "modern" and "archaic" elements where the left only saw the "archaic" ones. The left wing idea of Revolution was stretched to integrate revolution in individual behavior into broader social changes. Having deep seated roots in Brazilian reality, Tropicalismo was responsible for the creation of works wich are still up to date in contemporary Brazil, such as "Geléia Geral" by Gilberto Gil and "Tropicália" by Caetano Veloso.