Against Vargas: Censored Writers under the Brazilian “New State” (1937-1945)

ABSTRACT

This article aims to analyze the literary control during the Brazilian dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas. It seeks to identify the legislation created on the matter and analyze the censor process, as well as the actors involved therein. To this end, we identify and analyze some of the negotiation strategies developed by writers facing censorship. The intellectuals organized themselves in “protection networks” and articulated forms of resistance through the infiltration of power spaces. Through their penetration in the official media, they were able to face government censorship and reduce its repressive power. We also approach the underworld of clandestine literature, where we have traced books that were considered transgressive. The present investigation was carried out, fundamentally, at the archive of the Center for Research and Documentation of Contemporary History of Brazil, at Getúlio Vargas Foundation (CPDOC / FGV), at the Public Archive of the State of São Paulo (APESP), at the Archive of the Rio de Janeiro State (APERJ) and at Carlos Drummond de Andrade Archive (ACDA).

Censorship; Brazilian New State; Writers; Getúlio Vargas; Literature