Under the Boot of the Generals

Literature and Brazilian Dictatorship in the 1970s

Abstract

The article makes a study of Brazilian literature from the 1970s, which focuses on the dictatorship. The assumption of the text is that such literary production offers important elements for understanding the political regime implemented in Brazil after the 1964 Coup and also the direction the country began to take. Initially, we propose a brief review of topics in Brazilian social thought that are important for understanding the socio-historical context that the dictatorship finds; then, it deals with the relationship between culture and politics in Brazil after 1964 and with particularity from 1968 onwards; finally, it indicates, as an example, the reading of the novel Em câmara lenta, by Renato Tapajós, published in 1977, as an indication of the context of repression that was imposed, above all, between 1968 and 1973 and the political opening that was established from 1979.