Press and civilization in the nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro

Author(s)

Vinicius Cranek Gagliardo

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Franca. 2016-11-30.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais. Franca
• Defense date: 2016-08-23
• Advisor: Jean Marcel Carvalho França

Abstract

From the Portuguese Court arrival in Brazil, in 1808, an intense process of urbanization of the city and civilization of its inhabitants began in Rio de Janeiro, whose references were the European modernization, progress and sociability standards. This process was responsible, roughly speaking, for encouraging a new kind of social experience, markedly urban, which gradually changed the social landscape from colonial times, predominantly rural. Since then, many of the people's values and habits have suffered disrepute facing a new way of life that has spread, which caused many changes in the daily lives of the locals inhabitants, which extended from the physiognomy of the cities to the moral values and customs of the people. Although various institutions and agents have promoted these changes, the literates occupied then one of the most prominent roles, because they understood that the written culture - especially the belles-lettres and sciences - had a duty to spread the lights and civilization. Of the written genres, journalism was considered one of the most significant instruments of civilization, since the press had the privilege to publish in its pages the most different knowledges and news, disseminating themes related to literature, poetry, theatrical chronicle, articles of science promotion, history, hygiene, fashion, manners, morality, etc., knowledges that suggested to the population a new modus vivendi, considered more urban and civilized. The aim of this study is to make explicit this pedagogical discourse built in the nineteenth-century periodicals, which aimed at the formation of a civilized people and nation. To do this, I tried to map a series of prescriptions that were directed at the population, in order to specify which were the main physical, moral and behavioral traits that should compose the man and woman who wanted to produce. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/10966-7 - Being civilized in Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth century: the formation of the people through the pages of the Rio de Janeiro periodicals.
• Grantee: Vinicius Cranek Gagliardo
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate