National for denial

essay and “independent criticism” in the last Roberto Schwarz

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present and analyze Roberto Schwarz's critical reflection about the impasses of the national formation process, especially the way it presents itself in some of his essays published in the last three decades, since the turn to the 1990s. At the time, in face of the transformations that Brazil and the world were undergoing, Schwarz radicalized and broadened the scope of negativity already present in his previous reflections, as opposed to the “positive” views of the national question, inscribed on the horizon of capitalist modernization. The central hypothesis is that this “peripheral negativity” can be seen through the understanding of the (essayistic) critique model cultivated by the “last” Schwarz, a model that defines his unique position in the Brazilian intellectual scenario.