A NAÇÃO NO PAPEL: INTELECTUAIS, RAÇA E EUGENIA NO CORREIO PAULISTANO (1918-1930)

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the speech of Brazilian intellectuals in the pages of Correio Paulistano newspaper, trying to understand how the discussions on race, eugenics and hygiene were mobilized to think about the formation of the nation and the national identity between 1918 and 1930. This is a historical research in which the writings and the activities of Brazilian intellectuals in the São Paulo journal, are investigated, since its beginning, in 1854, it has been characterized by a strong political and intellectual performance in the reflections and interventions on the development of Brazil. When articulating these conditions, the research considers the involvement of intellectuals when proposing projects for the invention of a modern, eugenic and civilized nation, aiming at its most complete racial, physical and moral "regeneration". To understand this problem, we look at the articulations promoted by intellectuals from different areas among them doctors, eugenicists, jurists, literates, journalists, educators, anthropologists and political activists, and its relations with the press and the public world, in order to validate and legitimize its diagnoses and its projects to build the national identity. According to the intellectual history and the history of science, this work tries to understand how intellectuals employ the science, the press and the intellectual reflection as tools of intervention in the political world, acting in the organization of society and in the formation of the nation of their dreams. On the other hand, this study intends to contribute to historiographical debates about race and identity in Brazil trying to understand how eugenics, hygiene and public health were, especially in the First Republic unavoidable paths in the reflections promoted by the intellectuals and the political elite, to think about the past and the future of Brazil and Brazilians.