Ad Immortalitatem: How politics was manifested in the Investiture Ceremonies at the Brazilian Academy of Letters During the Military Dictatorship (1964-1979)

Abstract

To what extent was the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) able to serve as an instance of legitimization of the military dictatorship established in Brazil after the 1964 coup? This article aims to examine a specific aspect of the daily life of this institution during the military dictatorship: the investiture ceremonies. We believe that this approach allows us to analyze how politics could operate “apolitically” within the ABL. We argue that ceremonies may have become political events because it showed, first of all, the proximity and networks of sociability between the conservative intelligentsia and the regime. Secondly, we identified the transmission of values in some speeches that were, at that time, those of the conservative environment. The examination of the investiture ceremonies indicates that the ABL contributed to legitimize the regime which was established in Brazil in 1964. However, this legitimization did not take place through an open “collaboration”, but by the behavior of all its members, their proximity to the representatives of the regime and the diffusion and circulation of a conservative discourse.