Macunaíma: entre a crítica e o elogio à transculturação

A fascinating contradiction lies in the center of Macunaíma. The hero of Mário de Andrade's novel has an incredible ability to refashion himself, to mingle with other cultures and to wear different social masks in order to achieve his goals. Such transcultural skills, however, don't seem to work in Macunaíma's favor, since the hero fails miserably to forge his self. In this article, I discuss what kind of consequences can be drawn from this paradox. It is my contention that the novel is comprised of an appraisal and a critique of Antropofagia. The novel exhibits features that both laud Brazilian hybridity and examine critically the ends of that transcultural process. I also contend that the novel envisions another kind of hybridity for Brazilian culture—a subaltern hybridity, which valorizes the cultural exchanges among countries within the Southern Hemisphere. The novel thereby lays out a critical theory of hybridity in which actual configurations of hybridity can be criticized from the standpoint of an imaginative and alternative hybridity.