«The birth of the new man»: brazilian intellectual culture from the student revolution to the founding of the Workers’ Party (1968-1979)

Abstract

In Brazil, during the years 1968 and 1979, the youth revolutionary ideas confronted the military regime and sought to go beyond the papers and reach out to the people. The studies of Florestan Fernandes and Paulo Freire, as well as the combined efforts of the intellectuals who conceived the Workers’Party, allow us to follow part of this revolutionary process in the field of political ideology. The impact of student and cultural movements influenced by Western Marxism and existentialism was decisive in the formation of an intellectual culture and new political leaders. The article delves deeper into the intellectual culture of the period, following a path that goes from understanding the intellectuals and their culture, the formative ideas of the 1968 generation, to the founding of the Workers’Party and the expansion of Paulo Freire´s ideas.