Beginning of the end

Abstract

The purpose of the “Beginning of the end” is to present a new and supplementary interpretation of the key concept of the Brazilian Modernist movement – Oswald de Andrade’s antropofagia. For eight decades the concept has been responsible for an extremely rich and accurate bibliography that underscores the belligerent aspects of the colonized cultures in regard to the colonizers. This interpretation, in spite of being correct from a social and political point of view, neglects the basic qualities of the work of art written in the margins of Western culture, in especial those related to the fact that it should arouse in the reader the need for a utopian thought, in which peace, hope and joy are the values.