O retorno do rei: as representações política e cultural de Luiz Gonzaga, traços de uma trajetória

Abstract

This work is the result of an investigation about cultural representations and symbolic power around the singer and composer Luiz Gonzaga (1912-1989), known as 'O Rei do Baião', focusing on his long career, between the 1940s and 1980s, but emphasizing more closely on the last decade, when the 'Rei' gained new prominence on the Brazilian music scene, after a period of relative ostracism in relation to the mainstream media between part of the 1960s and 1970s. Gonzaga, despite to maintain the unique characteristics of his artistic production in the new context, he had to make contact with the new generations and this process was marked by rich musical dialogues. At that time, he became known as 'Gonzagão', not only for the decisive interaction with his son, also a singer and composer Luiz Gonzaga Júnior (1945-1991), but also for becoming one of the main reference figures for many young musicians who emerged on the national scene at the time. The referred research was initially developed in the Paraíba newspapers "A União" and "O Norte", and then there was the insertion of other journals such as “O Correio Braziliense”, “Folha de São Paulo”, “Estado de São Paulo”, “Jornal do Brasil”, and “O Diário de Pernambuco”; with a later expansion of the universe of sources, including other periodicals, iconographies, records and music. Between artistic production and its media outlet, there is the multifaceted figure of this artist, who developed a very peculiar and striking feature in our culture. In the set of his vast musical production, we highlight the last ten years as a period of accurate interest, since this return to the mainstream media implied a redo of some of his artistic and personal steps. Thus, this research was placed in the epistemological line of Cultural History and with a close dialogue with the field of Political and Social History, encompassing the relations of power and culture with social relations. Based on this bias, we inserted studies and concepts about the analysis and importance of the printed source, in this case the newspaper, comparing it with the information contained in other sources and in biographies produced before and after Luiz Gonzaga's death. The bibliographic reference used, fundamentally, included the following authors: Ângelo (2006), Chartier (1991), Bourdieu (1996), Echeverria (2006), Oliveira (1991) and Dreyfus (2012).