GILBERTO FREYRE: A CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY

In GILBERTO FREYRE: A CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY, Enrique Rodríguez Larreta and Guillermo Gucci analyze most of Freyre's writings from 1900 to 1936 and trace the intellectual genealogy of his main ideas, maintaining a constant dialogue with the different cultural contexts and works he produced. Gilberto Freyre's innovative work is part of a tradition that includes brilliant Brazilian essayists such as Joaquim Nabuco, Euclides da Cunha, Oliveira Lima, Oliveira Viana, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, and Caio Prado Júnior, among others, with whom he maintains a constant critical dialogue. His ideas occupy a prominent place in the intellectual repertoire of the Brazilian generations that emerged between the crisis of the Empire and the Estado Novo, who set themselves the central and obsessive task of rethinking Brazil as a modern nation. His inspiring and controversial work cast a shadow over the intellectual life of modern Brazil. From the publication of Casa-grande & senzala in late 1933 to the present, Freyre has been both celebrated and harshly criticized. But, above all, many of his interpretations of Brazil have become so naturalized that they have become part of the national imagination. Gilberto Freyre: A Cultural Biography proves why he is considered by many to be a precursor of modern historical anthropology. It is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Brazilian cultural production.