Exu na Umbanda: da demonização à legitimação

Abstract

The main object of this work is umbanda, in particular the process of demonization and legitimization of the entity Exu in this religious field. The focus of this research is on Umbanda Literature. Widely analyzed from its rituals, Umbanda is also a religion marked by an effort to legitimize through systematization written in books of its theoretical bases. In this work, I propose an analysis of Umbandista Literature on Exu, in order to discuss how inside this literature it is possible to follow the demonization of this entity, as well as its legitimation. Therefore, this dissertation is dedicated to an analysis of the entity Exu within the field of Umbanda intellectuals, and their books. In the first chapter I will analyze the First Brazilian Congress of Spiritism in Umbanda (1941), trying to show the effort of Umbanda intellectuals of this period to codify Umbanda, systematizing its ritual. The second chapter proposes the analysis of the transformations of the entity of Exu in Umbanda through the Umbanda literature, and to analyze how the first Umbanda intellectuals after the First Congress, in an attempt to create a theoretical doctrinal basis for Umbanda and with regard to Exu, contributed to the demonization of this Entity with their interpretations of its meaning. The purpose of the third chapter of this dissertation is to investigate Exu in the Umbanda literature of today and analyze how this entity has been reframing itself, which is increasingly moving away from the diabolic vision coined throughout history, given the fact that many books are being launched with this theme and they are of crucial importance for this paradigm shift to occur.