Historical synthesis and Marxism in the work of Emilia Viotti da Costa from the 1960s to 1980s from the works Da Senzala à Colonia and Da Monarquia à República

• Grant number: 19/04435-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2019
• End date: May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Theory and Philosophy of History
• Principal Investigator: Thiago Lima Nicodemo
• Grantee: Clara Monteiro Schuartz
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research proposed intends to analyse the trajectory of historian Emilia Viotti da Costa from the perspective of history of historiography and theory of Brazilian history. Therefore the analysis is based on two of the author's works from the decades of 1960/1970: "Da senzala à colônia",1966; "Da monarquia a república", 1977; that approach historical synthesis within the works of Emília Viotti da Costa, a relevant author when it comes to discussions about historiography and about slavery and the shaping of Brazil's Republic. Therefore, since the author writes from the perspective of Brazilian Marxism, this research aims to understand how she relates Marxism to the construction of synthesis, the legacy of the great synthetic essays written during the 1930s. Historical synthesis is perceived on this paper as the effort to create historical work that encompasses a bigger understanding of historical processes, and doesn't limit itself to the enumeration and organization of the chronology of historical facts, characteristics that are somehow present in the works of Viotti. From the analysis of the way the author appropriates of Marxism, influences from the historical essays from the 1930s and her condition as a woman, historian and persecuted individual during the military dictatorship, this paper aims to understand how these factors contributed to the construction of her work, relating them to her revision works produced in the 1980s, and therefore inserting the author into the universe of the history of historiography, that still lacks analysis and research on works produced by Brazilian women.