Da viagem física à jornada interior: alegorias e identidade cultural em road movies brasileiros (1960-2015)

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the change in the representations of the cultural identity by analyzing the allegorical role played by the road in the Brazilian road movies released between 1960 and 2015. The hypothesis is that this group of films brings about, in a given historical moment, representations of collective identity (national identity), but changing later to represent a fragmented identity. As a result of this effort one might find the existence of what is now being called the two phases of the Brazilian road movie: the "Physical Journey" (congregating films released between 1960 to 1998) and the "Journey Within" (films from 1998 to 2015). What most distinguishes these two phases are the allegories personified by the road in these road movies, which change at the same time that changes in the cultural identity occur, the latter being confirmed by authors such as Anderson (2008); Bauman (2008, 2001, 1998) and Hall (2005). If the first phase, the road is presented as an allegory of the nation and of the Brazilian people, whereas in the second phase it begins to represent the individual transformation, the subjective odyssey, an existential space of transformation, which is configured as a rite of passage. The thesis is supported, in addition to the theoretical foundations, by the cinematic analysis of six films: Iracema, uma transa amazônica (BODANZKY; SENNA, 1974); Bye bye Brasil (DIEGUES, 1979); Jorge, um brasileiro (THIAGO, 1988); Central do Brasil (SALLES, 1998); Cinemas, aspirinas e urubus (GOMES, 2005) e Dromedário no asfalto (VARGAS, 2014). Thus, this work seeks to show, by watching the representation of some social and cultural characteristics present in the national cinema, the real confluence between the allegorical changes in Brazilian road movies with those in the construction of our own cultural identity.