Florestan Fernandes and Interpretations of Brazil

Essays that became known as “interpretations of Brazil” appeared mostly between the proclamation of the Republic in 1889 and the spurt in academic life in the 1930s and later. These essays sought an overall analysis of Brazil. However, as universities developed, works of this kind began to lose ground to monographs with more circumscribed aims. The sociologist Florestan Fernandes greatly influenced this development, but his last important work, A revolução burguesa no Brasil (The Bourgeois Revolution in Brazil), written after the military coup of 1964, differs from his other works, as is indicated by its subtitle, “an essay of sociological interpretation.” On the one hand lies the “essay,” on the other the “sociological interpretation.” The former allows him to “interpret Brazil,” but he does so with the eyes of a sociologist. Establishing a dialogue between A revolução burguesa no Brasil and other interpretations of Brazil such as those of Prado Júnior, Vianna, Buarque, and Freyre reveals the significance of this distinction.