Biografia e História nos escritos de Januário da Cunha Barbosa (1780-1846)

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the biographies written by Januário da Cunha Barbosa, within the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute (IHGB) in the period from 1839 to 1846, when he served as the first perpetual secretary. The work also aims to fill a gap in the historiography, in which Cunha Barbosa image is linked mainly to political activity at the period of Independence of Brazil. The focus of research is on biographical writings of Cunha Barbosa as an important part not only of their individual literate production but also the historiographical project of IHGB to which this production has remained linked. I propose also aims to identify the categories of great man, genius and historical providentialism that are embedded in these biographical accounts, besides highlighting the pedagogical and moralizing function of these biographies, whose writing is in tune with the exemplary conception of history as well as the concern of its author to do this writing mode of a privileged form of access to the past of the nation.