Essays

Patria, God, and Guns: An Analysis of Brazilian Right-Wing Street Protests from 2013 to 2021

Authors

  • Juliana Coelho University of São Paulo
  • Julia Guimarães Federal University of Minas Gerais

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/ejtp.4.41721

Keywords:

extreme right, spectatorship, street protests, performance, theatricality

Abstract

This article analyses the different cycles of street demonstrations that arose in Brazil between 2013 and 2021, especially those politically situated on ‘the new Brazilian right’ and ‘the extreme right’. We attempt to identify different performances and theatrical strategies used in these protests through an approach that combines politics and performing arts. These events have played a central role in constructing the country’s recent history. They endorsed critical political processes, acted in the discursive battle about these processes, and operated as a mechanism to encourage social adherence to conservative discourse. To understand the social and ideological functions of these protests, we examine how they explored theatricality to organise the spectator’s gaze. These theatrical strategies projected strong and effective symbolic images around conservative agendas.

Author Biographies

Juliana Coelho, University of São Paulo

Juliana Coelho is currently a FAPESP-funded postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Anthropology of the University of São Paulo and visiting researcher at Centre Maurice Halbwachs, working on the Balinese participation in the Colonial Exhibition of 1931. In 2019, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) PNPD CAPES/Brazil, analysing the ‘new Brazilian right’ performances. She co-created the research axis ‘Performativity and Politics’ at the CRIA Laboratory at UFMG. She has taught at UFMG (2006), University of Rennes 2 (2014–15), and University of São Paulo (2020).

Julia Guimarães, Federal University of Minas Gerais

Julia Guimarães is a visiting professor of Literature and Theatre at the Faculty of Letters at UFMG. She was a postdoctoral research fellow in Performing Arts at UFMG, working as an assistant lecturer. Also, she holds her PhD in Performing Arts from ECA-USP, where she served as a guest professor. She is co-organiser of the Ibero-American book O teatro como experiência pública (Theatre as a Public Experience), ed. by Hucitec, 2019. She worked as a theatre critic for O Tempo and Pampulha newspapers, and she is part of the podcast and theatre critic website Horizonte da Cena.

Published

2022-06-23

Issue

Vol. 4 (2022)

Section

Essays

Copyright (c) 2022 Juliana Coelho

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.