Brazil: The Brazilian Musical Libido

Charles Melman has recently pointed out the long-lasting consequences of the social trauma embodied in the colonization of Brazil by the Portuguese (Melman 93).1 One of these consequences, strongly associated with the violence involved in the annihilation of the native cultures, is a difficulty in the implementation of the function of the symbolic father, which results in problems concerning agreed-upon rules and procedures, something that affects the organization of social relationships as a whole.

The lack of a firmly established symbolic lather-function in this type of society would seem to generate a strong demand for a real father to appear and solve all the problems. It has been argued that one consequence of this demand is the tendency to welcome dictatorships in Brazilian political life (see Teixeira 51).

It would also appear that this psychological structure would affect not only members of the native cultures but also members of the Portuguese culture, who in such a structure would be in a subjective position vulnerable to the unlimited jouissance that assails subjects who have inadequate anchoring points in the symbolic order. Paulo Freire, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, has described with great accuracy how an oppressed people develops an identification with the oppressor. As a result of such identification, this proximity with unlimited jouissance became a model for the whole society, as can be seen in a character like Vadinho in Jorge Amado's novel, Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos. Vadinho, who represents in many respects the ideal Brazilian (he doesn't work, has many women, plays cards every evening, and is very good at sex) dies on the last day of Carnival, in the middle of an orgasm.

With the arrival of the African slaves, the situation became even more complex. The slaves, in becoming part of the production system, supported the possibility of unlimited jouissance for the Portuguese. On the other hand, they also became a source of symbolic references: li