Censorship during the military dictatorship in Brazil: books under the scrutiny

• Grant number: 09/53919-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2010
• End date: August 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Lucia Amaral de Assis Reimao
• Grantee: Sandra Lucia Amaral de Assis Reimao
• Host Institution: Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims at analyzing the censorship procedures of the Departamento de Censura e Diversões Públicas [DCDP], during the period starting from the 6th of January, 1970 to the 5th of October, 1988. The first of these dates is that of the enactment of law 1.077, instituting previous censorship to all published material. The second of these dates is that of the promulgation of the new Brazilian constitution, the so-called 1988 Constitution, which (under heading number 220, 2nd paragraph) abolished any kind of censorship motivated by political, ideological or artistic conceptions. The main objective of our research is to unveil the motivations behind the decrees of either approval or veto face to published materials. We intend to achieve this by analyzing the official reviews of such material made by the DCDP between 1970 and 1988. We will pay special close attention to the media: books, magazines, radio, television, movies. Our focus will rest upon the role of the book among the wider range of communication media and culture. This focusing will allow us to attain two main goals: 1. First, understanding how the book is thought of and dealt with by social agents of oppression; 2. Second, it will be possible to cross-reference such attitudes to the official documents of the DCDP, such as bulletins, official mail and instructions given to the censors. Other objectives of this research include: 1. to digitally copy the DCDP documents referring to books and magazines; 2. to organize such documents in a data bank; 3. to make this material of public access. These documents will be analyzed in two distinct but intrinsically connected moments: first, a quantitative and descriptive approach of the entire documents; then a qualitative analysis of these documents, chosen for specifically dealing with the topic of books and communication media. (AU)