O lugar de “Raízes do Brasil” no pensamento político e social brasileiro

Abstract

The aim of this study is to foster a re-reading of the book “Raízes do Brasil” to clarify the significant procedure for revision which the text was submitted by Sérgio Buarque de Holanda since its second edition (1948). In this scope, we built an interpretation emphasizing the historical perspective the discourse acquired from the act of revising which we consider was the responsible for making its tone radical, relativist and progressist. Therefore, this work seeks to demonstrate, through a diachronic analysis of the editions, that the radically democratic image built surrounding the text and its author presents a better alignment considering the renewed version of the book. This version redesigned the argument concerning the organization of the Brazilian society, the establishment of democracy and the determining factors of national identity. The historical line of interpretation which began to cover the text changes substantially the message of the discourse produced and, consequently, the political scope of the work, aspect that has been well explored by its analysts. Going further than this framework, this research develops the interpretation of the historical essay as the representative form of sociocultural thought of Sérgio Buarque, who was responsible for the formulation of the image of Brazil as the place of “archaic survivals”. Imbricated the past in the present, contemporary Brazil lives the experience of “uprooting”, the meaning of “our revolution”, as suggested by the author. That is the trail of our re-reading of the classic text eighty years later.