Radical anticlerical images: the formation and circulation of a subversive imaginary in the Argentine and Brazilian anticlerical press at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

This article intends, through the analysis of images published in the Argentine and Brazilian anticlerical press during the first three decades of the 20th century, to penetrate and unravel part of the subversive imagery disseminated and fostered in these combat sheets. The anticlerical newspapers analyzed here present a close relationship with the anarchist movement and circulate in a context in which illiteracy is high, so that the constant use of radical images is, in itself, a chosen strategy to attack the enemy, to constitute well-defined stereotypes and demoralize both the Catholic institution itself and its constituent members: priests and nuns. Thus, the constant use of images of authoritarian priests, greedy, drunkards and gluttons, shocking images of wanton and pregnant nuns and the use of multiple iconographic representations of an immoral, covetous and avaricious institution, will embody this anticlerical imagery. In addition to unraveling part of this anticlerical imagery, this article also intends to insert these cultural artifacts - images - into a large network of international circulation, pointing to the transnational character of the anticlerical press and, at the same time, highlighting the repetition, the re-signification, the use and constant circulation of images by the periodicals in question, elements that are fundamental in the constitution of any imaginary and, in this case, of a radical and subversive anticlerical imaginary.