This article has as thematic starting point a remark on a recurrent subject in the culture history of the First Republic: the supposed alienation of the intellectual elite. This image has had as counterpoint the concept of modernism, formulated by intellectuals as Tristão de Athayde and Rosário Fusco, which was based on the idea of a conscience that emerged from national reality. The parallelism of this speech with arguments used to give revolutionary legitimacy to the 1930’s blow, however, discloses that the elaborated terms, at first sight aiming at a cultural project creation, were simultaneously an expression of political desires.
modernism; realism; politics