Subversive Eros: The Conservative Reception of Marcuse in the Brazilian Dictatorship (1968–69)

Abstract: This article presents how the right-wing received Herbert Marcuse’s philosophy during the Brazilian dictatorship. I argue that General Moacir Araújo Lopes, an intellectual leader of Brazilian War College, was Marcuse’s most powerful interlocutor in Brazil. I construct a genealogy of the reception of Marcuse, highlighting a rare manifesto he wrote against the Brazilian dictatorship published in the New York Times in 1964. Then, I demonstrate through documents from the dictatorship’s security agencies how Marcuse’s readers were targeted for retaliation.