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Underground Utopias: Strategies of Mediation and Resistance in the Brazilian Punk Fanzines Network (1981–1985)

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Abstract

This chapter aims to investigate the dynamics of the alternative communication strategies and networks created by the Brazilian punks, starting with the publishing of their first fanzines, around 1981, covering publications issued until 1985, comprising the democratic opening period after two decades of military dictatorship in Brazil. These amateur publications, produced using precarious means, redefined the strategies for visibility adopted by working-class suburban youth. The zine production attributed to the punk movement a self-referenced identity, based on the DIY ethos, within an environment hostile to their social condition. The proposed analytical approach is based on dialogue between the research on the communicative processes of marginalized social groups under the scope of Folkcommunication, and the theoretical and methodological assumptions of contemporary Critical Theory.

Translated from Portuguese by Maria Helena Marinho. This chapter is dedicated to the beloved memory of William Oliveira, the eternal Will Proletário.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although the first Brazilian punk fanzines appeared in the 1980s, zine publishing practices in Brazil date back to the first decades of the twentieth century. As stated in Bruscky (2014), the first Brazilian fanzine, O Fan, was published between 1928 and 1930 by Chaplin Club, a film club in Rio de Janeiro. Also, the strengthening of an underground political and cultural press was essential for the circulation of information in the post-1964 dictatorial period.

  2. 2.

    AI-5 was the name of the fifth institutional act sanctioned by the military dictatorship government in 1968 that suspended several constitutional civil guarantees and increased the censorship and repression of opposers of the regime.

  3. 3.

    This stood for ‘We Chained in Hell’.

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Bruscky, Y. (2020). Underground Utopias: Strategies of Mediation and Resistance in the Brazilian Punk Fanzines Network (1981–1985). In: Guerra, P., Quintela, P. (eds) Punk, Fanzines and DIY Cultures in a Global World. Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28876-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28876-1_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28875-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28876-1

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