O projeto modernizador do intelectual Manoel Bomfim (1868-1932) expresso no livro de leitura Primeiras saudades (1920)

Abstract

The article aims to investigate the modernizing project of the intellectual Manoel Bomfim (1868-1932) in his reading book entitled Primeiras saudades (First Nostalgia) (1920). This book was written for elementary school children. The book highlights elements concerning the idea of modernization desired by the author while presenting the school as a lever for this modernizing process. An understanding was sought about the possible connections between the book and Manoel Bomfim’s proposals for Brazilian society. This occurred at the beginning of the Republican period. This way, the object of study in its multiple determinations was determined in the relationship that establishes with the context in which it was engendered. The research is justified by the absence of systematic studies developed by pedagogues on Bomfiniana production, especially with regard to their performance as educators. The text was structured to address the following aspects: a) children’s literature of Manoel Bomfim in the first decades of the republic. Aspects of his life, works, his role as educator, politician and author of books for children; b) the study of the book Primeiras saudades and its link with the author’s modernizing project. From Bomfim’s perspective, as a result it was concluded that children’s literature was conceived as a means for the inculcation of values, principles and patterns of behavior conceived as necessary for the formation of the republican citizen.