Abstract
Popular theatre, dealing with the expectations and problems of the masses as opposed to the aesthetics and themes of bourgeois theatre, came into being in Brazil in the late 1950S. It was a period of cultural change and innovative art movements. These changes continued until the military overthrow ofJanio Quadros' democratic government. Before the military dictatorship which began with this 1964 coup, the political nationalism of Quadros' predecessor, Juscelino Kubitschek,' paralleled the artistic nationalism in theatre, cinema, and music. During this period Cinema Novo was born. This new school of Brazilian cinema was represented by young and independent directors who soon won international recognition. Glauber Rocha, Nelson Perreira, and Carlos Diegues,2 to mention only a few, developed a new cinematic language bound to the cultural heritage of Brazilians and opposed to the commercial Hollywood imitations. Their movies were based either on masterpieces from Brazilian literature or original scripts which in most cases were written by the director. They shared similar thematic preoccupations: the search for national and cultural identity and their opposition to social and political injustices. The new trend in Brazilian music during the late 1950s was Bossa Nova. Songs like Girl from Ipanema (Garrota de Ipanema) and Happiness (A Felicidade) by Antonio Carlos Jobim represent the best innovations in structure, lyrics, and musical arrangements. Bossa Nova was a combination of Brazilian popular music and the sophisticated harmonies of cool jazz. In the I960s and '70s another important cultural movement called was created. Tropicalismo extended some of the nationalistic and artistic ideas of the Brazilian avant-garde from the '20os and '30os with its ironic, anthropophagic approach to the precolonial ethnic roots of Brazilians. The Antropofagia movement from Sio Paulo defined itself as cannibalistic, devouring the European, African, and Native American elements and expelling them into a new and universal culture.3 These elements of the '20S avant-garde were combined in Tropicalismo with
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