The policy of myth: discussion and appropriation in the elaboration of Barbosa Lessa’s regional traditionalist project

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the text “O Sentido e o Valor do Tradicionalismo” (The meaning and the value of traditionalist movement), thesis defended by Luiz Carlos Barbosa Lessa during the I Traditionalist Congress, in 1954, still considered the theoretical basis of the “Movimento Tradicionalista Gaúcho” (Gaucho Traditionalist Movement). So, I intent to relative and to deepen the consolidated academic interpretations, which overestimate the sociological influence of the School of Chicago in Barbosa Lessa’s ideas. For this, it’s necessary to contextualize the text, studying the public debate in 1950s: first, I intend to rebuild the traditionalist’s internal dialogues; then, I will identify its relations with the disputes over the construction of the myth of the gaucho in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazilian state, and the romantic tradition in local literature.