The mechanisms of forging a national consciousness: A comparative approach to modern Brazil and Cuba, 1930-1964
Description
A great majority of the intellectuals in the post-independence period in Latin America tend to be preoccupied with distancing themselves from European culture by attempting to answer the question: ques Quienes somos? (Who are we?) and ques Como somos? (How are we?) This was a vital step in the process of decolonization. While national intellectuals attempted to define who they were, they invariably extended their particular reality to mean 'national reality.' This dissertation will investigate the process by which national writers attempted to define their national identity, by looking closely at the case of the Brazilian and Cuban intellectuals from 1930-1964 In forging a national consciousness, dominant intellectuals exploited salient national symbols, which emerged out of the context of the 1930s. Under different historical circumstances, however, challenges to the dominant myths began to emerge in both countries. Black intellectuals and nationalists, in particular, had their own views about their national image In the cases of both Cuba and Brazil, black intellectuals were no less patriotic or nationalistic than their white counterparts. In any case, the national myths were so forceful that they became almost impossible to discredit. The transition to the new political generation in the 1960s and the continued use of the dominant national myths underscored this truth Both Cuba and Brazil, experienced revolutions in the 1960s that were more conservative, from an intellectual perspective, than the revolutions of the 1930s. The effect on the intellectual community was remarkably similar in regards to the issue of national culture This study is interested in the mechanism by which the national state and nationalist intellectuals forged a national cultural identity. With access to the major means of communication, the dominant intellectuals, from the right or the left, succeeded in propagating their idea of culture, which was remarkably similar, through the major mediums of communication. The purpose of this dissertation is to present in a succinct fashion the process by which national inculcation occurs and to point out in a broader context how economic and ethnic minorities are co-opted by patriotism