“Museus vivos das tradições humanas”: Alexina de Magalhães Pinto e sua concepção sobre o “papel eminentemente educador dos contos”

Abstract

What is the social character of folktales? Can tales contribute to human formation? In the “Preliminary note” of the book Contribuição do folk-loro brazileiro para a bibliotheca infantil (1907), the writer and folklorist from Minas Gerais, Alexina de Magalhães Pinto (1869–1921), naming folktales (whether they are “fairy tales, fabulous or biblical”) as “living museums of human traditions”, argues that those narratives would contain an “eminently educational” role. This paper presents the author, her work, and, thereafter, analyzes “Historia (sic) de um cachorrinho”, which is part of the collection mentioned above, aiming to reflect upon this function of the tales of instructing and educating (which the author talks about). From this analysis — of a bibliografic and critical-analytical nature — results the understanding about the unique contribution of the teacher and researcher Alexina de Magalhães Pinto for the history of Brazilian children’s literature, in its broad sense (especially for her commitment in carrying out an ethnographic and historical research to compose works from oral tradition and Brazilian folklore to serve generations), and also the perception about the merit of her task of launching, at that time, a debate about the humanizing character of fiction. It is possible to conclude, from this analysis, that literary and fictional productions, by making fabulation possible, can instruct and educate, among other aspects, because of their character of transcending limits of time, modes and forms of representation of multiple and diverse experiences.