tropicalism means anything that is characteristic of Tropicália, a Brazilian artistic movement. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 90 out of 100.
Why “tropicalism” is a great word
TROPICALISM — [Noun] The artistic philosophy and aesthetic practice of the Brazilian Tropicália movement of the late 1960s, characterized by a critical, syncretic fusion of native traditions with imported cultural forms. From Brazilian Portuguese tropicalismo, with substitution of the suffix -ism for -ismo; by surface analysis, from tropical (pertaining to the tropics) + -ism (denoting a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy). First attested in English c. 1970. Unlike primitivism, which romanticizes the non-Western as simple, or exoticism, which consumes the foreign as mere ornament, tropicalism is a self-aware and ironic act of cultural cannibalism. It is the electric guitar slicing through a samba rhythm, the concrete poem collaged with a supermarket advertisement, and the carnivalesque performance staged as political protest—a joyous and desperate synthesis, finding profound identity in the chaotic heat of history.
noun
- Anything that is characteristic of Tropicália, a Brazilian artistic movement.“Or is it possible that tropicalism is not a geographical zone, but rather a zone of the spirit, the zone of highest passion, the immense homeland of zealots?”