The past as distraction

Engagements with history in the new Brazilian populism

Abstract

In this article we analyze how the populist movement embodied by Bolsonaro engages with history in a way that activates its heterogeneous political base. These engagements seem to be different from some aspects of modern chronosophies, such as the abandonment of synchronization and the coherent presentation of a national history. Instead, the new populist historicity of the Brazilian far right is based more on affective attachment, a pragmatic and highly fragmented historical performance that, as we argue, more closely resembles a historicity we call “updatism”. To demonstrate the affinity we see between this historicity called updatism and the specific Bolsonarista version of the so-called neopopulism, this article is divided into three parts. First, we present the concept and theory of updatism. Next, we characterize the neopopulist dimensions of Bolsonarism, that is, the cultural and political movement represented by Jair Bolsonaro. Then, we analyze the new Brazilian populism in its engagements with history, especially the performances of history by the three secretaries of culture of the Bolsonaro government and how the defactualization of reality gains strength, creating the conditions of possibility for the past to be like a great closet full of ready-to-wear images and models.