THE 2 FACES OF TRADITION - CLASSICAL AND POPULAR TRADITION IN LATIN-AMERICAN MODERNITY

This essay re-examines the position of traditional culture in Brazil and Latin America, focusing primarily on popular traditions (so-called folklore) and erudite traditions (so-called classical culture). The crisis supposedly afflicting these two brands of culture is interpreted in the light both of the vicissitudes of popular culture and, above all, of the relation to modem-day culture's hegemonic dimension, that is, mass culture. The argument that is advanced endeavors to move not only beyond an apocalyptic attitude regarding mass culture (which often finds expression in the myth of the fall, or degeneration, of culture), but also beyond the integrated, or post-modem, attitude. Using a hermeneutic approach, the adopted alternative reclaims traditional culture as an important space of expression in resuming the utopian project of emancipation for Latin American societies.