INDEPENDENCE AND REVOLUTION: THEMES OF POLITICS, HISTORY AND VISUAL CULTURE

Abstract

In order to collaborate with the questions suggested by the Forum “On the eve of the 200th anniversary of the Independence of Brazil: what and how to discuss?”, this paper seeks to address the central theme of the discussions, choosing the relations between politics, culture and historiography as an analytical axis. In the first part, it retrieves and unfolds arguments around the understanding of Independence as a theme of politics and as a revolutionary movement that guided the thinking and action of the protagonists who experienced the separation from Portugal and the formation of the Empire in the 19th century. In the second part, it seeks to articulate the political and historiographical debate developed during the 19th century and the emergence of visual representations and recreations of the theme, as well as the episodes and characters connected to it. The primary objective is to raise questions about the writings of history and visual narratives that still today populate the speech of historians and the imaginary of Brazilian society, in order to discover their foundations and the reasons for their persuasive strength.

Keywords :
Independence history; policy; History writing; visual narratives