Ao vencedor as batatas 30 anos: Crítica da cultura e processo social: Entrevista com Roberto Schwarz

Abstract

This interview, given by Roberto Schwarz on August 24, 2007 at his house in São Paulo, has integrated the activities elaborated by the Grupo de Trabalho Pensamento Social (Social Thinking Workgroup) in Brazil to honor the thirtieth anniversary of Ao vencedor as batatas in the scope of the 31st Anpocs Annual Meeting. It covers the conception of the book, its reception along the years, as well as developments in posterior studies. Thus, among other crucial questions, Schwarz revises the debate on the duality inscribed in the Brazilian social experience, its effects on the cultural life and the different responses given to it; it also reaffirms the heuristic potential of the research on the aesthetic form - not only the so-called "aesthetic hits" but also the "misses" - towards the understanding of the social life, as well as the importance of specification in the historical meaning of the forms and ideas in the work of the culture critic. © 2009 ANPOCS.