A dialética do Brasil no espetáculo Brasileirinho de Maria Bethânia: performance, memória e cultura afro-brasileira

Abstract

This research work, based in Cultural Studies (WILLIAMS, 2011; HALL, 2003, 2016) and Cultural Analysis, examines contemporary Brazil through the lens of the spectacle Brasileirinho (2004), performed by Maria Bethânia. The concepts of performance, memory, and afro-brazilian culture crosses the analysis, which unfolds in chapters that mobilize the notion of spiral time (MARTINS, 2021). In this regard, performance operates as a mode of inscription of discourses that transcend the moment of their enunciation: the performative event does not exhaust itself within its temporal occurrence, as it evokes ranges of meanings that are continuously revisited, re-elaborated, and rewrote in new contexts, thus persisting as interpretive layers that interpellate the present. This work revisits, taking as reference performances from the show, historical facts such as: enslavement and the existence of structural racism; the syncretisms to which afro-brazilian culture was subjected in order to maintain its faith and traditions; and the understanding of the importance of nature for a process of re-enchantment of the desired country. The research concludes that Brasileirinho represents memory in motion, linking distinct temporalities through performances that address contemporary Brazilian issues, problems that hovered over Brazil in 2004 and continue to do so in present-day Brazil.