Christopher Dunn's history of authoritarian Brazil exposes the
inventive cultural production and intense social transformations
that emerged during the rule of an iron-fisted military regime
during the sixties and seventies. The Brazilian
contracultura was a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that
developed alongside the ascent of hardline forces within the regime
in the late 1960s. Focusing on urban, middle-class Brazilians often
inspired by the international counterculture that flourished in the
United States and parts of western Europe, Dunn shows how new
understandings of race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship erupted
under even the most oppressive political conditions.
Dunn reveals previously ignored connections between the
counterculture and Brazilian music, literature, film, visual arts,
and alternative journalism. In chronicling
desbunde, the
Brazilian hippie movement, he shows how the state of Bahia,
renowned for its Afro-Brazilian culture, emerged as a
countercultural mecca for youth in search of spiritual
alternatives. As this critical and expansive book demonstrates,
many of the country's social and justice movements have their
origins in the countercultural attitudes, practices, and
sensibilities that flourished during the military dictatorship.