Thinking About Latin America – Culture, Art, Intellectuals And Media

(Presentation)

Abstract

This dossier proposes to bring together articles that address the circulation of ideas from groups linked to the fields of arts, letters, sciences and politics in Latin America based on discussions that surrounded the debate on national projects, with an emphasis on action in various media, such as newspapers, magazines, television and radio. Therefore, here we propose a reflection throughout the 20th century, during authoritarian periods (whether in dictatorial moments, or in moments of tension in the implementation of national projects in moments of democratic stability.) in which Latin American artists and intellectuals conceived projects and they built sociability networks thinking about anti-hegemonic action. Thus, we bring together works that debate the Latin reality by researchers from all over Latin America, especially Brazilians and Argentines. From a theoretical-methodological point of view, this dossier focuses on the Social History of Culture, situating the spaces of action built by various agents based on projects that sought alternatives to the authoritarian and imperialist traditions present until now in national states. Such reflection seems salutary to rethink the fields of dispute and conception of what constitutes the construction of the Latin American being, what is the role of our continent in intellectual and artistic networks, in proposing projects that dialogue with the social particularities of our geographic space , acting in gaps, negotiations and how crucial it is to resume in the light of the 21st century other ways of thinking about national projects and discussions of ideas that resulted in the Latin American left-wing intellectual tradition.