ABSTRACT
Brazilian children’s literature has been a disputed field of power since it first emerged. This article intends to show that, regardless of the various political affiliations of its creators, the correspondence between “Brazilian childhood” and the European phenotype was hegemonic in the production aimed at future citizens. At the same time, erasing population diversity through the whitening of the population of African origin and the association of indigenous peoples with savagery - among other textual stratagems - contributed to naturalizing the image of Brazilians as white people. Notwithstanding the scant attention historiography usually pays to children’s literature, the argument presented highlights the role undertaken by editing and mediating this reading matter in the maintenance of structural racism, thereby denying fundamental rights and citizenship to a considerable part of the Brazilian child and youth population.
Keywords:
Brazilian children’s literature; National childhood; Structural racism; Citizenship; Civic literature