Groundless engajament: Vilém Flusser’s relationship with Brazil

Abstract

Vilém Flusser is an uprooted thinker. Jewish and prague, has the family murdered by the Nazis. After a year in England, arrives in Brazil in 1940, where he would live for just over three decades. Multilingual philosopher, makes self-translation his presupposition of thought, postulating that there are as many realities as the articulated languages. He returned to Europe in 1972 and, since then, lives between lectures and conferences, without formally affiliating himself with any academic institution. Despite his groundless biography and philosophy, the concept of engagement was still central to his work, especially for the time he lived in Brazil. It is in Brazil that the affective and political placement of a place crosses the thinking of this stateless philosopher, a feeling that accompanies him until the end of his life. The purpose of this article, based on a careful reading of the unpublished correspondences with some of its main interlocutors, is to discuss Flusser's Brazilian engagement. The premise is that Flusser forged an imaginative model, albeit without the claim to formulate a “Brazilian philosophy”, which can serve as a critical key for understanding contemporary Brazil. The doubts about the forms of engagement in Brazil, which crossed Flusser's life, especially in the 1970s, are brought to the table again.