OF RULES AND FEELINGS: CIVILIZATION SPEECHES IN THE PEDRINHO READING SERIES AND THE PAIS & FILHOS MAGAZINE

Abstract

The present article aims to analyze the permanences and discontinuities of the civilizatory discourses propagated in educational forms that sought to regulate aspects of physical and moral health in the second half of the twentieth century. With this intent, on examine the Pedrinho Graduate Reading Series, by Lourenço Filho, which circulated in the primary public school throughout Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s, and the monthly magazine Pais & Filhos, specifically a sample of editions from the 1960s to the 1980s. Based on the discussions about the civilization process undertaken by Norbert Elias, it was found that the period after World War II was marked by the reinvention of forms of coexistence, of belonging and social distinction. In this context, the production and circulation of printed matter that disseminated civilizing contents, in the most varied material and textual supports, constituted “discursive and institutional devices that, in a given society, aim at disciplining the body and practices and model behaviors and the thoughts” (CHARTIER, 2003, p.155). The publications examined were circulated both in the school institution and from outside, between parents. In addition, they contributed to internalizing habits, behaviors, values that were the producers of rules on health practices and guidelines for a perfect personal, moral and social conduct.