Os notáveis : a perpetuação do imaginário masculino nos livros de história de Mato Grosso nas primeiras décadas do século XX

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze how the narratives of masculinity are built in the regional historiographical production of the state of Mato Grosso. The time frame chosen for this analysis is the first decades of the twentieth century. This research is based on the Gender category, whose definition is found in Joan Scott. Feminist and gender studies have allowed us to break with a certain consecrated vision of a history written in the masculine, deconstructing memories whose personified inferences refer to an image of strength, courage, virility and power – therefore, conventionally associated with men. The two main works of History of Mato Grosso in the period were listed as source: Quadro Chorographico de Matto Grosso (1906), by Estevão de Mendonça, and Mato Grosso (1920, reedited in 1939) by Virgilio Corrêa Filho. The thorough reading of the works listed for this research is combined with the theoretical treatment of gender issues, regarding masculinity, and aims to verify, in the narratives of these works, elements that can support the – still scarce – studies on masculinities, in this study in Mato Grosso. The questions problematized in this research are asked to observe how the narratives of these works have approached or silenced gender relations. It is intended to indicate in the conventional repertoire of thematic contents in its temporal and didactic divisions the same conventions of the traditional repertoire of didactic writing of regional history. In this documentary break, we seek to weave a possible genealogy of masculinity in the historiography of Mato Grosso; between the lines and pages of these books is there, even if not on purpose, the virility of the notable men in the history of Mato Grosso.