Os senhores e a história: relações de saber e poder na elaboração de narrativas historiográficas para a província do Ceará (1859-1869)

Abstract

Much has bens said, written, and problematized about the intertwined relationship between the formation of national states and the writing of history in the nineteenth century. In most cases, history provided the temporal arguments needed to legitimize national/nationalist discourses. In the case of Brazil, this process took place shortly after national independence (1822), with the creation of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute (IHGB) in 1838. Through the historical, geographical, ethnographic, and literary studies produced by this institution, and through a rhetoric of nationality the aim was to unite the provincial parts into a national whole. In this sense, this research seeks to analyze how Ceará was included in this project of writing national history, especially between 1859 and 1869, when the first historiographical narratives about the province's past were published. The texts in question are Apontamentos para a história do Cariri (1859), by João Brígido; Ensaio estatístico da Província do Ceará (1863-1864), by Thomaz Pompeu de Sousa Brasil; História da Província do Ceará desde tempos primitivos até 1850 (1867), by Tristão de Alencar Araripe, and Esboço histórico sobre a Província do Ceará, by Pedro Théberge, completed in 1862 and published posthumously in 1869. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the context in which these writings were produced, circulated, and received, as well as to ask who were the subjects involved in these endeavors and what disputes arose over the different readings proposed for the history of Ceará.