Cannibalization as Critique and Creation
Following the tenets of antropofagia, it was vital for the Tropicálistas to subsume the other as part of the creative act of reinvention. According to Behague (1973: 216), through antropofagia, Tropicálistas consumed all facets of Brazilian society and global influences as raw materials that were weaponized to critique the military dictatorship. Whether it was the middle class’ assumptions, taken-for-granted religious frameworks implicit in Brazilian society of the time, or the military regime, everything was food for cannibalism. At the same time that the movement digested foreign music, it devoured “anything and everything.” As Veloso explained:
You take in anything and everything, coming from anywhere and everywhere, and then you do whatever you like with it, you digest it as you wish: you eat everything there is and then produce something new. We thought we could have a critical attitude from a cultural perspective, an aggressive attitude, not a passive and defensive nationalism. (Veloso in Dunn 1996: 123)
The antropofágico movement took the form of cosmopolitan symbolic cannibalism with a political agenda. The internalizing and reissuing of cannibalized sound and musical creation was central to the movement’s multifaceted critique of the military regime, reactive nationalism, and received aesthetics. The movement took in everything as raw material to be fashioned into something new and consumed without distinction as to what was good or bad, national or international, or other received binaries.
To understand the process and purpose of cannibalization in Tropicália, it is helpful to examine the appropriation of Carmen Miranda[5] in the song that is synonymous with the movement and shares its name: “Tropicália.” Veloso invoked Carmen Miranda in the final stanza of the lyrics. In closing the song with Miranda, Veloso implicitly referenced the cycle of power, disempowerment, and renewal that marked both Brazil under the dictatorship and the Brazilian star’s own trajectory: the cycle of rejection and redemption marking Miranda’s rise in Brazil, restrictive casting by Hollywood, demonization when returning to Brazil, and her later redemption as a cultural icon.
Carmen Miranda epitomized the redemptive power of “Tropicália” as a form of antropofagia in the cycle of rejection and reunification central to so many of Brazil’s potent cultural forces. Here we see how Andrade’s concept of cannibalizing culture or antropofagia animated “Tropicália’s” innovative blending of electronic sounds, music, and critical lyrics. Veloso’s reference to Carmen Miranda at the end of the song essentially devoured her and redefined her. Veloso explained his vision of this process:
[This was] a trend we were exploring in Tropicálismo: that is to take an object – a vulgar, even a culturally repulsive object – and remove it from its context, displace it [...]. Then you start to realize why you chose that particular object, you begin to understand it, and you realize the beauty in the object, and the tragedy involved in its relationship with humanity – humanity’s tragedy for creating that object and that kind of relationship – and finally you start to love it. And if there really is something loveable about it, you begin to respect it. (Veloso in Dunn 1996: 132)
Veloso took the stereotype of Hollywoodized Brazil embodied in Carmen Miranda, consumed it, recognized its tragedy, and ultimately transformed it into something worthy of love (Veloso, 2013). According to Dunn, Veloso’s treatment of Miranda in “Tropicália” was “a way to recover something from the past, to recover it, assimilate it, try to understand it, not with scorn, but with something that is part of the culture” (Dunn 1996: 131). In this way, Veloso transformed Miranda from an object of derision to an object of love symbolizing a cycle of resistance and redemption.
Next: “Tropicália”
