The Tropicalist allegory on the avenue of historicism: Tropicalism and rock in Brazil

Abstract

Since its consolidation in the Brazilian culture, the Tropicalism is designed by intellectuals as a form of representation of modern and national associated with allegory, which is related with the linear progress of historicist historiography. Thus, the allegory seems as an update of Brazil's representations, so that Carlos Basualdo says that the Tropicalism intends to think the Brazilian national identity as an open process in continuous development and, therefore, the incorporation of the rock elements on it serves as a mean of updating the musical production in Brazil. If, on the one hand, the Tropicalism, according to the dialectical nature of the allegory, synthesizes the polarities represented by MPB and rock music, on the other hand, rock produces a counter-discourse of national identity through a procedure that refuses to operate logically or dialectically, which is the subject of this work.