Território, cultura e samba: um estudo aproximativo do Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Portela

Abstract

This dissertation is a work constructed through analytical categories listed for understanding the territorialized Black cultural production in Rio de Janeiro. Samba and Samba Schools, especially the Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Portela in the Oswaldo Cruz and Madureira neighborhoods, were selected as a centennial cultural institution representing a way of creating culture in suburban and Black territory. Samba and samba schools are understood as expressions and forms of resistance in a process of territorialization of the Black and marginalized population of Rio de Janeiro, rescuing a historicity linked to Brazilian social and spatial formation. The study starts from the conception of territory as a space produced by and producing collectivities and the organization of social relations, understanding Portela as a collective subject capable of expressing, through cultural practice, conflicts, continuities, and forms of resistance mediated by carnival discourse. The research has a qualitative character, grounded in Marxist critical theory and contemporary critical theory, articulating the categories of territory, culture, work, nature, and language. The following methodological instruments were used: bibliographic review, document analysis, and visits to the samba school's headquarters and the Samba Museum. Samba and samba schools constitute forms of cultural and political production that express the historical insertion of the black population in the city of Rio de Janeiro, highlighting processes of deterritorialization, resistance, and reterritorialization. Thus, Portela establishes itself as an important space of memory, identity, and cultural production in the urban context of Rio de Janeiro.