Entre o magistério feminino oitocentista e a escrita da história na escola primária : a trajetória letrada da mestra Herculana Firmina Vieira de Sousa (1840-1880)

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to examine the professional trajectory of Herculana Firmina Vieira de Sousa, a Portuguese-Brazilian elementary school teacher, and to analyze her textbook, "Resumo da História do Brasil," published in 1868 in the province of Maranhão by the printing press of Belarmino de Mattos and adopted by the Inspectorate of Public Instruction for use by the students of local primary schools. The study focuses primarily on the period between the 1840s and 1880s, during which Herculana taught, and on the cities of São Luís and Cururupu. However, the study also mentions other provinces, such as Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, and the court in Rio de Janeiro, as needed. In parallel with these efforts, the research also aimed to undertake a double dive into the professional dimensions presented in the trajectory of teacher Herculana, namely, teaching and writing a historical study. Through this, it sought to deepen questions related to female insertion in the worlds of work in the nineteenth century, especially the labor performance of women in the field of Maranhense education as teachers and directors of girls' schools, as well as to point out the existence of a group of women of letters responsible for producing varied cultural goods belonging to the historical genre. We propose, with this, a reflection made within the field of Brazilian historiography, as a way of rethinking the idea of canon, so that it is possible to examine the multiple and creative ways in which women of letters ventured into the written production about the nation's past, and, in doing so, we also note the intellectual erasure concerning these female voices. The theoretical framework used to address these aspects was based on interdisciplinary research, combining the fields of Women's History (PERROT, 2005, 2016; ABRANTES, 2012, 2014; DUARTE, 2017, 2018), Intellectual History and History of Historiography (SMITH, 2003; SMITH, 2007; EPPLE, 2006, 2009), and History of Education (SCHUELER, 2002, 2015; CASTRO, 2009; MUNHOZ, 2018). In terms of key concepts, we used the term "historiographic practices and operations" (CERTEAU, 2002) to think about how Herculana and other women writers constructed their writing and historical research practices based on gender hierarchies. Another fundamental concept was to think about gender (SCOTT, 1992, 1995) through a feminist perspective related to the historical construction of power hierarchies that strongly influenced the experience of literate women in the 19th century. The thesis methodology is based on indicial investigation (GINZBURG, 2007), in which we followed the thread of Herculana Vieira's name, as well as those of other female teachers and authors of historical works. The sources consulted were diverse, including textbooks, 19th-century newspapers, periodicals, almanacs, provincial presidential reports, censuses, passports, wills, and biographical dictionaries. As results, we pointed out the multiplicity of experiences and female movements in teaching and intense female participation in the constitution of historical knowledge in the 19th century. Herculana Vieira's historiographic operation was based on intensive dialogue with Abreu e Lima's school compendium and relied on compilation practices, something relatively common in 19th-century school culture. The textbook “Resumo da História do Brasil” had modest circulation, but marked the intellectual project of a First Letters teacher whose intention was to configure a civic, memorialistic, and formative panorama among students in Brazilian primary schools under the imperial order.