The Political and Epistemic Challenge of “Despaulistizar-se”: An Interview with Gilberto Felisberto Vasconcellos

Abstract

The interview with Gilberto Felisberto Vasconcellos offers a reflection on his intellectual trajectory and the originality of his work within Brazilian sociology. Trained at the University of São Paulo but in clear disagreement with the directions taken by São Paulo sociology and its political-economic project, Vasconcellos develops a radical critique of cultural dependence and underdevelopment from a Marxist and nationalist perspective on culture—set in contrast to what he identifies as the dominant approaches within the country’s sociology of culture. The central thread of the interview is the process of “de-Paulistizing” himself, understood as an intellectual and political rupture that marks his departure from São Paulo and consolidates an autonomous mode of thought directed toward the critique of the culture industry, imperialism—both international and regional—and a commitment to a socialist project for the nation. Influenced by figures such as Glauber Rocha and Bautista Vidal, Vasconcellos succeeds in articulating sociology, politics, art, and culture through a distinctive imagistic expressiveness that rejects academic accommodation and reaffirms the urgency of an intellectual critique rooted in the Latin American reality.