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| Anthropophagic_Manifesto | |
|---|---|
| Title | Anthropophagic Manifesto |
| Original title | Manifesto Antropófago |
| Author | Oswald de Andrade |
| Published | 1928 |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Country | Brazil |
| Genre | Manifesto |
Anthropophagic_Manifesto is a 1928 modernist proclamation by Brazilian writer Oswald de Andrade that proposed cultural "cannibalism" as a strategy of creative appropriation, challenging prevailing Academic art norms and asserting a syncretic identity for Brazil. It emerged amid transnational exchanges with European avant-garde movements and regional debates in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, positioning itself against conservative institutions such as the Academia Brasileira de Letras and engaging with contemporaries including Tarsila do Amaral, Mário de Andrade, and Manuel Bandeira. The manifesto’s rhetoric and metaphor became central to later discussions in Brazilian modernism, postcolonial theory, and debates around cultural autonomy in Latin America.
The manifesto arose in the late 1920s during ferment around the Semana de Arte Moderna (1922), the rise of Brazilian modernism, and intellectual currents connected to Primitivism, Surrealism, and Futurism. It was written against the backdrop of political developments involving figures like Getúlio Vargas and economic transformations tied to export economies centered on São Paulo (state) and the coffee oligarchy, and it conversed with artists and writers such as Tarsila do Amaral, Anita Malfatti, Mário de Andrade, Murilo Mendes, and critics aligned with European institutions like the Salon d'Automne and publishers in Paris. The text reflexively addressed Brazilian negotiation with legacies of Portuguese colonization, interactions with Indigenous peoples of Brazil, and intellectual currents emanating from Lisbon, Madrid, Buenos Aires, and New York City.
Authored by Oswald de Andrade, the manifesto was published in São Paulo in 1928 and circulated in literary journals and pamphlets connected to Revista de Antropofagia initiatives and exhibitions curated by groups including the Semana de Arte Moderna (1922) participants and the Grupo dos Cinco (Brazil). Andrade’s network encompassed painters such as Tarsila do Amaral and poets such as Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira, and it intersected with publishers, galleries, and periodicals in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and transatlantic hubs like Paris. The publication history involved reprints in anthologies, translations engaging intellectuals in Buenos Aires and Lisbon, and critical responses in newspapers including outlets influenced by editors adjacent to Modernismo (Brazilian literature) debates.
The manifesto synthesized ideas from European avant-garde movements—Surrealism, Dada, Futurism—and philosophical sources linked to thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, and critics influenced by José Ortega y Gasset. It dialogued with visual innovations by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Paul Gauguin while referencing ethnographic and anthropological discourses circulating through institutions like the Museu Nacional (Rio de Janeiro) and journals from Paris. Andrade’s conceptualization of cultural "cannibalism" also responded to debates about colonialism evident in texts by Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, and contemporaneous Latin American intellectuals from Argentina and Mexico, engaging with artists associated with the Mexican muralism movement such as Diego Rivera and writers like José Martí.
Andrade advanced "antropofagia" as a strategy of selective appropriation and transformation, advocating that Brazilian culture should "devour" and recombine influences from Europe and Africa to produce singular forms, echoing practices in music, visual arts, and literature via figures like Heitor Villa-Lobos and Tarsila do Amaral. The manifesto foregrounded tensions with established institutions such as the Academia Brasileira de Letras and addressed racial, indigenous, and syncretic legacies tied to Africans in Brazil, Indigenous peoples of Brazil, and colonial histories involving Portugal and Spain. Themes include cultural autonomy in relation to United States and France, artistic experimentation resonant with Surrealist and Futurist techniques, and a polemic stance toward conservatism shaping debates among intellectuals like Menotti del Picchia and Oswald de Andrade’s contemporaries.
Initial reception ranged from polemical debate in salons and periodicals in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to engagement by artists and critics in Buenos Aires, Lisbon, and Paris, provoking responses from writers such as Mário de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira, and journalists aligned with modernist circles. Over subsequent decades the manifesto influenced musical innovators like Heitor Villa-Lobos, visual artists associated with Antropofagia movement exhibitions, and literary movements across Latin America, informing theoretical appropriations by scholars associated with Dependency theory and later by thinkers in Postcolonialism and Cultural studies linked to figures such as Walter Mignolo and Homi K. Bhabha.
The manifesto’s metaphor of cultural consumption became a foundational reference for debates about national identity in Brazil and for transnational theories of cultural hybridity among intellectuals in Latin America, appearing in museum retrospectives, university curricula at institutions like the Universidade de São Paulo, and scholarship across disciplines influenced by journals and presses in Paris and New York City. Its legacy is visible in exhibitions of Tarsila do Amaral and projects commemorating the Semana de Arte Moderna (1922), and it continues to inform dialogues about appropriation, artistic innovation, and decolonial aesthetics among contemporary creators and scholars in networks spanning São Paulo, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City.
Category:Brazilian literature Category:Modernist manifestos