Beyond Devouring: Antropofagia in Mário de Andrade’s Macunaíma

In the 19th and early 20th century, Brazilian cultural production emulated dominant European models. However, beginning with the São Paulo Modern Art Week of 1922, modernists decried what they perceived as pandering to European standards wholly inadequate to artistic creativity in Brazilian society, reshaping both literature and visual arts in Brazil. A sub-school of Brazilian modernism, the Anthropophagite movement reappropriated the cannibal as its symbol, “devouring” European, national and indigenous influences alike in the creation of a new Brazilian literature. As one of the foremost Brazilian writers and critics of the 20th century, Mário de Andrade (1893-1945) was at the heart of São Paulo’s avant-garde for two decades. Involved in every discipline associated with Brazilian modernism, he was co-architect of the Modern Art Week, and his influence as an author, poet and scholar continues to be felt today. Mário notably distanced himself from the Anthropophagite sub-movement of Brazilian modernism, following the culmination of years of antagonism by Antropophagia’s leading figure and friend of Mario, Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954).