Several recent scholarly works have investigated the rapid expansion of conservative thought globally, but few studies offer an in-depth examination of the “social imaginary” and the role of the structuring logic of images (both digital and analog) in the development of this worldview. This talk aims to present a preliminary mapping of certain narratives and mythical constructs that underpin the neoconservative imagination in Brazil. From fantasies about lost cities in the Amazon to conspiracy theories about cloned doubles of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (the current leftist president), we will seek to understand the elements that articulate this topology of the imagination into a coherent whole and what this reveals about

Erick Felinto has been a Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the State University of Rio de Janeiro since 1999. He is the author of five books (in Portuguese) on film studies, literary theory and cyberculture. He was President of the Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Communications (Compos) from 2007 to 2009. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from UERJ/UCLA and is currently a researcher for CNPq (the Brazilian National Council for Research and Development). He also worked for the Flusser Archive on the production of the DVD “We Shall Survive in the Memory of Others” (translation and transcription of Portuguese subtitles). His last book, “Avatar: the Future of Cinema and the Ecology of Digital Images” (with Ivana Bentes) was published in 2009. He is currently the Scientific Director of the Brazilian Association of Researchers in Cyberculture (Abciber).