Between modernity and degeneration: Oscar Wilde and Mário de Andrade in the Brazilian periodical press

Resumo

This article examines a selection of materials concerning Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and Mário de Andrade (1893-1945) published in the Brazilian press of the early 20^th century, showing how the culture of this period articulated conflicting views of both writers–at times presenting them as figures emblematic of new conceptions of modernity, at others construing them as symptoms of a process of cultural and moral degeneration supposedly inherent in this same modernity. More specifically, this study explores how Mário de Andrade, one of the leading figures of the First Phase of Brazilian Modernism (1922-30), reread Oscar Wilde–both his public persona and his works–through a dual creative strategy: partly oriented towards giving form to his own sexuality, partly towards shaping a literary project more consistent with the transformations of a new republic. Finally, this article argues that, although Brazil underwent an intense modernisation process in the early 20^th century, this was not accompanied by a corresponding process of cultural modernisation–a disjunction made visible in the ways the periodical press of the time repeatedly mobilised these writers–particularly on account of their sexual orientations–as discursive and ideological weapons, often subjecting them to a range of symbolic violences.